MONTANA  A.ORICULTURAJL 

EXPERIMENT  STATION 

V.  B.  IvINRIEl^D,  Director. 


BULLETIN  NO.    67. 


Designed  for  the  Use  of  the 
Beginner  and  Small  Apiarist. 
Adapted  to  the  State  of  Mon- 
tana. 


OF  THE         XNIVEF 
UNIVERSITY) 




BY 
RALPH    BENTON 

Under  the  Direction  Of 

R.  A.  COOLEY,  Entomologist. 


BOZEMAN,   MONTANA 
JUNE,  1907. 


AQRICULTURAL  COLIJEOE 
EXPERIMENT  STATION. 


F\  B.  I^INJTIEL^D,   Director. 
BOZEMAN,   MONTANA 


STATE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION 

JOSEPH  K.  TOOLE,  Governor  \ 

A.  J.  GALEN,  Attorney  General                        V  Ex-Officio  Helena 

W.  E.  HARMON,  Sup't  Public  Instruction          \ 

J.  M.  EVANS            ........  Missoula 

C.  R.  LEONARD      ........  Butte 

O.  W.  McCoNNELL           .......  Helena 

0.  P.  CHISHOLM                .......  Bozeman 

S.  D.  LARGENT                   .......  Great  Falls 

G.  T.  PAUL                         ....                        .  Dillon 

E.  O.  BUSENBURG              .......  Lewistown 

CHARLES  R.  KESSLER      .......  Helena 

EXECUTIVE  BOARD 

WALTER  S.  HARTMAN,  President          .  .  .  Bozeman 

E.  B.  LAMME,  Vice-President    ......  Bozeman 

JOHN  MAXEY  ......  Bozeman 

JOHN  ROBINSON  ......  Bozeman 

E.  BROOX  MARTIN  .  .  .  .  .  .  Bozeman 

GEO.  Cox,  Secretary 

STATION  STAFF 

F.  B.  LINFIELD,  B,  3.  A.,  Director. 

R.  A.  COOLEY,  B.  Sc.,  Entomologist 

V.  K.  CHESNUT,  B.  Sc.,  Chemist. 

R.  W.  FISHER,  B.  S.  Horticulturist. 

E.  TAPPAN  TANNATT,  B.  S.,  Rural  Engineer 

W,  J.  ELLIOTT,  B.  S.  A.,  Dairyman 

ALFRED  ATKINSON,  B.  S.  A.,  Agronomist 

ROBERT  W.  CLARK,  B.  AGR.,  Animal  Industry. 

EDMUND  BURKE,  Meterologist  and  Assistant  Chemist 

FRANK  HAM,  M.  S.,  Assistant  Chemist 

ANDREW  P.  ANDERSON,  Assistant  Engineer. 

DEANE  B.  SWINGLE,  M.  S.,  Assistant  Botanist. 

J.  B.  NELSOH,  Sup't.  Dry  Farm  Work. 

H.  O.  BUCKMAN,  B.  S.,  Assistant  Agronomist. 

Post  Office,  Express  and  Freight  Station,  Bozeman. 

All  communications  to  the  Experiment  Station  should  be  addressed  to 

THE  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION, 

Bozeman,   Montana 

NOTICE. — The  Bulletins  of  the  Experiment  Station  will  be  mailed  free  to 
any  citizen  of  Montana  on  request.  Please  state  whether  all  publications  are 
desired  as  issued  or  only  those  specified.  Give  name  and  address  plainly. 


LETTER  OF  TRANSMITTAL. 

i  .  B.  LINFIELD,  Director, 

Agricultural  Experment  Station, 

Bozeman,  Montana. 
Dear   Sir: — 

The  accompanying  paper,  entitled  practical  bee-keeping,  de- 
signed for  the  use  of  the  beginner  and  small  apiarist,  adapted  to  the 
state  of  Montana,  has  been  prepared  by  Mr.  Ralph  Benton,  a 
graduate  of  the  Montana  Agricultural  College  in  the  class  of  1906. 
Mr.  Benton  is  well  qualified  to  write  on  this  subject  having  had  a 
lifelong  experience  with  bees  with  his  father,  who  is  the  Apiarist  of 
the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  and  having  also  had 
several  years  of  practical  experience  in  Montana.  The  paper  was 
submitted  in  lieu  of  a  thesis  and  was  prepared  during  Mr.  Benton's 
senior  year. 

Several  photographs  made  by  myself  are  submitted  for  illus- 
trations; several  others  have  been  borrowed,  credit  for  each  bor- 
rowed cut  being  placed  in  the  legend. 

The  results  of  our  experiments  in  apiculture  are  summarized 
by  Mr.  Benton ,  it  seeming  to  be  desirable  to  publish  a  popular 
bulletin  covering  in  a  general  way  the  whole  subject  of  apiculture 
m  Montana,  rather  than  to  publish  in  separate  bulletins  such  a  gen- 
eral work  and  in  addition  a  detailed  statement  of  our  experiments. 

I  recommend  that  this  paper  be  published  as  Bulletin  No.  67  of 
our  regular  series. 

R.  A.  COOLEY, 

Zoologist   and   Entomologist. 
Bozeman,  Montana,  Nov.   15,   1906. 


CONTENTS. 

Section  i — Structure  of  the  Honey  Bee. 

Section  2 — Some  Habits  of  the  Bees: 

Section  3 — Varieties  of  Bees  and  Their  Geographical  Distribution.. 

Section  4 — Bees   and   Flowers — Honey   Producing   Plants. 

Section  5 — Essentials  of  a  Good  Bee  Hive. 

Section  6 — Technique  of   Handling  Bees. 

Section  7 — Starting  an  Apiary. 

Section  8 — Modes  of  Wintering. 

Section  9 — Queen  Rearing. 

Section  10 — Methods  of  Controlling  Increase. 

Section  n — Production  of  Honey. 

Section  12 — Bee  Diseases. 


Practical  Beekeeping 


STRUCTURE    OF   THE    HONEY    BEE 

In  order  to  understand  the  highly  specialized  appendages  and 
organs  of  the  honey  bee  it  will  be  profitable  to  first  consider  th* 
structure  of  a  typical  insect.  The  main  external  structural  charac- 
ter separating  insects  from  closely  related  forms,  such  as  spideri, 
scorpions,  mites  and  even  the  larger  animals  as  the  cray-fishes  and 
lobsters,  is  the  fact  that  they  uniformly  have  six  legs.  These 
may  not  in  all  cases  be  used  for  walking,  as  in  the  case  of  some  but- 
terflies which  employ  only  four  legs,  yet  have  the  other  two  present 
in  a  dwarfed  condition. 

The  body  of  an  insect  is  divided  into  three  easily  distinguish- 
able portions, — the  head,  the  thorax  and  the  abdomen.  The  origin 
ot  these  three  divisions  can  be  better  understood  if  a  caterpillar  be 
examined.  The  caterpillar  we  find  is  composed  of  a  series  of  rings, 
or  metameres,  as  they  are  called.  The  primitive  ancestor  of  in- 
sects is  believed  to  have  had  more  metameres  than  insects  now 
possess,  and  it  is  supposed  that  each  segment  had  a  pair  of  appenda- 
ges. In  the  adult  insect  of  today  these  rings  are  more  or  less  unit- 
ed into  a  varying  number  in  different  insects.  The  head  is  supposed 
to  be  formed  of  several  of  these  segments  fused  together  with  the 
appendages  modified  to  function  as  mouth  parts  and  sense  organs. 
It  is  generally  agreed  that  three  segments  with  their  three  pairs  of 
appendages  unite  to  form  the  thorax  or  second  section  of  the  body 
which  bears  the  three  pairs  of  legs.  The  remaining  segments  are 
usually  easily  distinguishable  even  in  the  adult,  though  in  some 
instances  the  last  two  or  three  are  united  and  their  appendages  are 
modified  to  aid  in  the  deposition  of  eggs,  or  for  defense,  in  the 
form  of  a  stinger,  as  is  the  case  in  the  hornets  and  bees. 

Insects  as  a  class  are  divided  up  into  a  series  of  orders  based 
upon  structural  differences.  The  six  principal  orders  are:  Or- 
thoptera  or  grasshoppers,  etc. ;  Hemiptera  or  true  bugs,  including 


6  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT  STATION 

tree  hoppers,  plant  lice,  water  bugs,  etc. ;  the  Coleoptera  or  beetles ; 
the  Lepidoptera,  including  moths  and  butterflies;  the  Diptera,  in- 
cluding the  true  flies;  and  the  Hymenoptera,  including  the  bees, 
ants,  wasps  and  hornets.  It  is  generally  believed  that  the  Hy- 
menoptera compose  the  highest  order  of  insects,  yet  these  orders 
have  developed  parallel  to  each  other.  Of  the  Hymenoptera  the 
supremacy  lies  between  the  ants  and  the  bees,  and  from  the  num- 
ber of  specialized  organs  and  products  of  bees,  they  may  be 
given  the  higher  place.  Carrying  the  subdivision  further,  the 
Kymenoptera,  so  named  from  their  membranous  wings,  are  divided 
into  two  sub-orders:  the  boring  Hymenoptera  including  the  saw- 
flies,  gall-flies,  ichneumon-flies,  etc.,  and  the  stinging  Hymenoptera 
including  the  ants,  wasps  and  bees.  The  bees  are  called  the  Apina. 
They  are  again  subdivided  into  families,  the  short  tongued  bees 
or  Andrenidae,  and  the  long  tongued  bees  or  Apidae,  the  honey 
bee  falling,  of  course,  within  the  latter  group.  Apidae  are  again 
subdivided  and  we  distinguish  the  genus  Bombus  or  bumble-bees, 
the  genus  Megapis  or  giant  bees,  and  the  genus  Apis  or  the  common 
honey  bees.  The  genus  Megapis  is  separated  into  species  and  we 
have  Megapis  dorsata,  Megapis  zonata,  and  Megapis  testacea,  the 
giant  bees  of  India,  Java  and  the  Philippines.  The  genus  Apis  is 
separated  into  the  following  species, — Apis  florea  and  Apis  indica, 
the  small  East  Indian  bees,  and  Apis  mellifera,  the  European  or 
common  bee.  To  recapitulate  briefly,  the  common  honey  bee  be- 
longs to  the  class  Insecta,  order  Hymenoptera,  super  family  Apina, 
family  Apidae,  genus  Apis  and  species  mellifera.  So  the  name  of 
the  honey  bee  is  Apis  mellifera  from  the  Latin  apis,  meaning  bee  and 
mellifera,  meaning  honey.  From  the  same  given  root,  apis,  comes 
our  word  apiculture,  meaning  the  cultivation  of  bees  and  also 
apiary,  meaning  a  collection  of  colonies  of  bees. 

To  return  to  the  structure  of  the  honey  bee.  We  have  seen 
that  bees  have  three  pairs  of  legs  borne  on  the  lower  side  of  the 
thorax.  The  insect  leg  is  composed  of  a  series  of  parts  with  joints 
between,  named  from  the  body  down,  the  coxa,  trochanter,  femur, 
tibia,  tarsus.  There  is  a  tendency  among  bees  to  bear  upon  each 
tibia  a  so-called  spur.  In  the  first  pair  of  legs  this  spur  is  modified  to 
form,  with  an  indentation  of  the  first  tarsal  segment,  a  circular  comb 
or  cleaner.  This  is  known  as  the  antennae  cleaner  and  serves  the 
bee  in  cleaning  the  coat  of  fine  hair  on  the  antennae  or  feelers.  The 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  7 

antennae  are  appendages  of  the  head  believed  to  bear  sense  organs. 
Cleaning  the  antennae  is  accomplished  by  the  bee's  throwing  the  fore 
leg  up  over  the  head,  and  the  antennae  fitting  in  the  indentation,  is 
iu closed  by  the  spur  and  drawn  through  the  circular  comb  thus 
formed.  By  this  process,  repeated  several  times,  all  particles  of 
dust  are  removed  from  the  antennae  by  the  little  teeth  of  the 
comb.  The  tibial  spur  of  the  middle  leg  is  used  as  a  crow-bar  in 
the  removal  of  the  pellet  of  pollen  from  the  tibia  of  the  hind  leg. 
In  the  hind  leg  the  spur  is  missing,  but  located  in  a  similar  position 
to  that  of  the  antennae  cleaner  we  have  a  structure  known  as  the 
wax-forceps  which  is  opened  and  closed  by  the  bending  of  the 
tarsal  joint  on  the  tibia.  The  use  of  this  forceps  will  be  spoken 
of  later  in  connection  with  the  wax  glands. 


Fig.  1.— Foot  of  Bee,  with  the  Pulvillus  in  Use.  (magnified  fifty  times) 
A,  under  view  of  foot;  t,  t,  tarsal  joints;  an,  anguiculi;  fh,  feeling  hairs;  pv, 
pulvillus;  cr,  curved  rod.  B,  side  view  of  foot;  lettering  as  before.  C,  cen- 
tral part  of  sole;  pd,  pad;  cr,  curved  rod;  fh,  feeling  hairs;  pv,  pulvillus  un- 
opened. (From  Cheshire  by  courtesy  of  L.  Upcott  Gill,  London.) 

The  tibia  of  the  hind  leg  is  modified  to  form  a  pollen  basket 
known  as  the  corbicula.  This  basket  is  formed  simply  by  long 
curved  hairs  arranged  along  the  edges  of  the  flattened  and  indent- 
ed tibia,  curving  outward  and  over,  enclosing,  when  filled,  the  pel- 
let of  more  or  less  adhesive  pollen. 


8  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

The  first  tarsal  joint  is  somewhat  enlarged  and  greatly  flattened 
and  has  on  its  inner  surface  a  series  of  rows  of  regularly  arranged 
stiff,  bristle-like  hairs  used  by  the  bee  in  cleaning  itself  and  known 
as  combs.  The  use  of  these  combs  in  collecting  pollen  will  be 
spoken  of  at  length  in  the  next  section  on  the  habits  of  bees. 

There  remain  a  few  words  to  be  said  in  regard  to  the  foot. 
There  is  an  interesting  structure  known  as  the  foot  pad  or  pulvillus 
located  between  the  two  forked  claws  of  the  foot.  This  pad  pro- 
duces a  secretion  of  a  sticky  nature  which  enables  the  bee  to  cling 
to  smooth  surfaces.  Its  action  is  of  interest.  The  bee,  normally 
walking  upon  the  tips  of  its  claws,  finds  itself  slipping,  and  in  the 
struggle  to  stop  itself  the  claws  slip,  and,  in  bending  under,  the 
sticky  pad  between  them  comes  in  contact  with  the  surface.  As 
the  bee  lifts  the  foot  in  taking  another  stride  the  claws  serve  ai 
a  pry  and  the  pad  is  pulled  loose,  beginning  at  one  edge  as  one 
would  pull  or  peal  up  a  freshly  stuck  postage  stamp.  In  this  way 
the  bee  is  enabled  to  crawl  on  as  highly  polished  a  surface  as  a  win- 
dow pane. 

The  wings  are  four  in  number  and  are  borne  on  the  dorsal  part 
of  the  first  and  second  thoracic  segments.  They  are  membranous 
and  are  carried  when  at  rest  folded  one  pair  above  the  other  on  the 
back  of  the  body,  thus  enabling  the  bee  to  crawl  into  its  cells  with 
perfect  ease.  When  spread,  the  two  wings  are  fastened  together 
by  a  series  of  hooks  on  the  hind  wing^which  hook  into  a  fold  on  the 
fore  wing,  thus  presenting  a  continuous  surface  to  the  air.  Bees 
can  fly  forward  and  backward  by  adjusting  the  action  of  the  wings. 

We  will  next  take  up  the  head  and  its  appendages.  The  head 
is  triangular  in  front  view,  with  the  mouth  located  in  the  lower  an- 
gle. At  the  two  upper  angles  are  located  the  two  large  compound 
eyes,  composed  of  a  great  number  of  hexagonal  facets,  covered 
with  a  fine  coating  of  hairs.  Besides  these  compound  eyes  the  bee 
has  three  single  eyes  or  ocelli,  located  in  a  triangle  on  top  of  the 
head,  one  in  the  center  and  to  the  front,  and  the  other  two  placed 
laterally.  On  the  front  side  of  the  head  are  borne  the  two  feelers 
or  antennae,  which  function,  it  is  believed,  as  sense  organs — smell 
and  possibly  hearing.  These  consist  of  a  long,  basal  segment,  the 
scape,  and  a  series  of  small  segments,  the  flagellum,  which  articu- 
lates upon  the  scape. 

The  mouth  parts  of  the  bee  bear  consideration  in  detail.  There 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING 


Fig.  2 — Head  and  Tongue  of  Bee  (magnified  sixteen  times.) 
a,  antenna,  or  feeler;  m,  mandible,  or  outer  jaw;  g,  gum  flap,  or  epipharynx; 
mxp,  maxillary  palpus;   pg,  paraglossa;   mx,  maxilla,  or  inner  jaw;  lp,  labial 
palpus;   1,  ligula.     (From  Cheshire  by  courtesy  of  L.  Upcott  Gill,   London.) 


10  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT  STATION 

is  a  central  proboscis  or  tongue  which  is  capable  of  being  drawn  in 
for  about  half  its  length,  and  then  it  is  bent  under  and  carried  with 
the  tip  against  the  neck.  The  tongue  proper  of  the  proboscis  has 
a  groove  down  its  length,  in  which  operates  a  rod  which  raises  the 
honey,  chiefly  by  capillarity.  The  lower  portion  of  the  tongue  is 
covered  with  a  large  number  of  gathering  hairs,  and  at  the  tip  is 
flattened  out,  forming  a  spoon  known  as  the  bouton.  The  proboscis 
has  two  pairs  of  appendages  located,  one  of  each,  on  either  side  of 
the  tongue  proper.  These  are  known  as  the  maxillary  and  labial 
palpi  respectively,  and  are  chiefly  tactile  organs  assisting,  presum- 
ably, in  the  gathering  of  honey.  Structurally  viewed  the  proboscis 
may  be  considered  as  the  enlarged  and  modified  labium  or  lower 
lip,  also  called  the  hypopharynx.  The^  labrum  or  upper  lip,  also 
known  as  the  epiphanynx,  is  present  unmodified.  The  side  jaws  or 
mandibles  are  present  and  are  modified,  not  for  biting  purposes,  but 
to  serve  as  paddles  in  the  manipulation  of  the  wax  in  comb-build- 
irg  and  also  in  other  work  about  the  colony. 

The  glands  for  the  secretion  of  wax  are  located  on  the  under 
s?de  of  the  abdomen,  under  the  upper  and  covered  portion  of  the 
abdominal  plates.  These  horny  ^plates  of  chitin,  covered  with 
branching  hairs,  overlap  each  other  like  the  shingles  of  a  house. 
It  is  on  the  upper  portion  of  these  plates,  covered  with  the  plates 
above,  that  the  wax  scales  form  and  appear  between  the  plates  of 
segments,  pushing  out  farther  and  farther  as  the  process  of  secret- 
ing goes  on.  These  scales  are  seized  by  the  forceps  of  the  hind  leg, 
previously  described,  and  passed  forward  by  the  other  legs  to  the 
madibles  where  the  wax  is  softened  and  worked  until  of  the  right 
condition  for  building  purposes. 

Structurally  considered  the  stinger  of  a  bee  is  a  modified  ovi- 
positor. In  the  case  of  the  queen  bee,  its  principal  service  is  in  the 
deposition  of  eggs  and  in  the  drone  or  male  bee  it  is  absent.  In  the 
worker  or  undeveloped  female,  as  will  appear  later,  it  is  modified 
for  defensive  purposes  and  provided  with  poison,  chiefly  formic* 
acid,  for  injection  into  wounds  inflicted.  The  stinger  proper  con- 
sists of  two  darts  barbed  at  the  ends.  In  the  act  of  stinging  these 
darts  are  alternately  thrust  outward  and  inward  by  complex  muscu- 
lar action,  thus  resulting  in  the  deeper  insertion  of  the  sting.  The 
poison  is  the  product  of  a  pair  of  glands  in  the  ventral  portion  of 
the  abdomen  and  is  stored  in  a  sack  from  which  it  is  conducted  by 


JS* 


Fig.  3. — Details  of  Tongue  Structures  of  Bee. 

A,  Under  srde  of  ligula;  Ip,  labial  palpus;  r,  r,  rod;  p,  pouch;  ah,  sheath; 
gh,  gathering  hairs;  b,  bouton,  or  spoon.  B.  underlip  or  labium,  with  appen- 
dages, partly  dissected — 1,  lora  or  submentum;  a,  a,  retractor  linguae  longus; 
sr,  salivavry  duct;  rb  and  b,  retractor  linguae  biceps;  mx,  mx,  maxillae;  Ip, 
Ip  libial  palpi;  pa,  paraglossa;  gr,  feeding  groove;  sh,  sheath  of  ligula.  C,  D, 
and  E,  cross  sections  of  ligula;  hp-,  hyaline  plate  of  maxillai;  h,  hairs  acting 
as  stops;  mx,  maxillae;  Ip,  labial  palpi;  sd,  side  duct.  F,  cross  section  of 
extremity  of  tongue,  near  spoon — th,  tactile  hairs;  r,  rod;  n,  nucleus;  gh, 
gathering  hairs.  G,  cross  section  of  tonue  without  gathering  hairs,  magni- 
fied 400  times;  sh,  sheath;  b,  blood  space;  t,  trachea;  ng,  gustatory  nerve; 
cd,  central  duct;  sd,  side  duct;  pm,  plaited  mambrane.  H,  same  as  G,  but 
magnified  200  times,  and  with  pm,  plaited  membrane,  turned  outwards,  as  in 
A;  b,  blood;  n,  nucleus;  r,  rod;  h,  closing  hairs.  I  small  portion  of  sheath; 
gh,  gathering  hairs;  th,  tactile  hairs.  K,  extemity  of  tongue  with  spoon, 
lettering  as  before;  b,  branching  hairs  for  gagthering.  (From  Cheshire  by 
courtesy  of  L.  Upcott  Gill,  London). 


12  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

ducts  to  minute  openings  opposite  each  barb,  from  which  openings 
it  passes  and  thus  enters  into  the  lowest  portion  of  the  wound.  The 
honey  bee  usually  inserting  the  stinger  to  its  full  depth  is  unable 
t3  extricate  it,  and  so,  in  attempting  to  free  itself,  generally  muti- 
lates its  body  to  such  an  extent  that  death  ensues  within  a  few 
hours.  The  stinger  continues  to  act  automatically  for  some  mo- 
ments after  the  first  act  of  stinging  and  more  poison  is  injected. 
Obviously,  for  this  reason,  the  stinger  should  be  removed  as  quick- 
ly as  possible,  and,  since  squeezing  the  stinger  in  an  endeavor  to  pul! 
it  only  introduces  more  poison,  it  should  be  removed  by  a  scrap- 
ing motion  of  the  fingernail. 

If  we  examine  the  sides  of  the  abdomen  of  the  bee  we  will  find 
small  oval  openings,  one  to  each  segment,  known  as  spiracles. 
These  open  into  an  elaborate  series  of  tubular  passage  ways,  known 
as  tracheae,  leading  into  the  tracheoles,  which  ramify  into  every  pait 
of  the  body  of  the  insect,  carrying  air  to  the  most  remote  tissues 
Circulation  is  accomplished  through  a  dorsal  blood  vessel  operating 
in  lieu  of  a  heart,  driving  the  blood  forward  where  it  bathes  the 
brain  first  and  then  gradually  returns  through  the  body  cavity,  en- 
tering the  dorsal  pericardial  cavity  through  a  series  of  openings. 
In  a  practical  treatise  of  this  kind  we  cannot  go  into  the  details  of 
those  portions  of  the  anatomy  and  physiology  of  the  bee,  however 
interesting  and  wonderful  they  may  be,  which  do  not  bear  directly 
upon  some  practical  feature,  and  for  this  reason  we  must  pass 
rapidly  over  the  internal  anatomy.  Suffice  it  to  say  in  connection 
with  the  nervous  system,  that  there  is  not  a  complete  centralization 
of  nervous  control,  as  is  the  case  in  higher  animals,  but  .instead 
control  is  diffused  among  a  series  of  ganglia  occuring  throughout 
the  length  of  the  body,  explaining  the  striking  performance  of  a  de- 
capitated bee  running  about  for  some  time  and  even  attempting  to 
fly,  after  the  head  has  been  removed.  There  is,  of  course,  a  cephalic 
ganglion  or  brain  which  is  more  highly  specialized  than  the  others, 
for  the  reception  of  sensations  and  general  control  of  the  body. 

We  will  pass  quickly  over  the  digestive  systern,  citing  the  most 
important  structures.  The  honey  sack  deserves  notice.  This  is 
located  immediately  preceding  the  stomach  ami  is  connected  with 
the  latter  by  a  very  complicated  and  interesting  passage  called  the 
stomach  mouth.  This  passage  is  composed  of  four  lip-like  sides, 


Fig.   4. — Digestive   System  of  Bee   (magnified  ten  times.) 

A,  Horizontal  section  of  body;  Ip,  labial  palpus;  mx,  maxilla;  e,  eye;  <lv, 
dv,  dorsal  vessel;  v,  ventricles  of  the  same;  No.  1,  No.  2,  No.  3,  salivary 
gland  systems,  1,  2,  3;  ae,  oesophagus;  pro.  t,  prothorax;  mesa,  t,  mesathorax; 
meta.  t,  meta thorax;  g,  g,  ganglia  of  chief  nerve  chain;  n,  nerves;  hs,  honey 
sac;  p,  petaloid  stopper  of  honey  sac  or  stomach-mouth;  c.  s,  chyle  stomach; 
bt,  biliary  or  malpighian  vessels;  si,  small  intestine;  1,  lamellae  or  gland 
plates  of  colon;  li,  large  intestine.  B,  cellular  layer  of  stomach;  gc,  gastric 
cells,  magnified  200  times.  C,  biliary  tube — be,  bile  cells;  t,  trachea.  D, 
inner  layer,  carrying  gt,  gastric  teeth.  (From  Cheshire  by  courtesy  of  L*. 
Upcott  Gill,  London. 


14  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT  STATION 

lined  with  setae  or  bristle-like  hairs,  and  leading  into  a  tube  entering 
into  the  center  of  the  chyle  stomach  or  stomach  proper.  The  func- 
tions of  this  passage  as  faithfully  worked  out  by  Professor  Cheshire, 
are  three ;  first,  it  enables  the  bee  to  pass  on  for  digestion  and  assimi- 
lation honey  and  the  pollen  grains  usually  to  be  found  in  flower 
nectar;  second,  to  deposite  this  food,  especially  the  pollen  grains, 
in  the  midst  of  the  digestive  fluids  to  so  prevent  any  clogging; 
and  third,  it  enables  the  bee  to  allow  honey,  with  its  contained  pollen 
grains,  to  pass  into  the  tube  and  return  again  through  the  hairs  of  the 
passage  way,  straining  out  the  pollen  grains,  which  pass  into  the 
stomach  and  are  used  by  the  bee  for  food.  This  can  be  accomplish- 
ed by  the  bee  while  flying  from  flower  to  flower,  gathering  its 
sweets,  so  that  when  ready  to  return  to  the  hive  with  its  load,  the 
pollen  has  all  been  removed  and  the  honey  is  ready  to  be  deposited 
in  its  cells,  free  from  pollen,  which  might  cause  it  to  ferment.  The 
s»tomach  proper  is  provided  with  the  usual  glands  necessary  for  the 
digestive  function.  The  intestine  is  provided  with  a  series  of 
chitinous  teeth,  thus  giving  the  structure  the  nature  of  a  gizzard. 

There  remain  a  few  words  to  be  said  relative  to  the  important 
sets  of  glands  located  in  and  near  the  head.  One  pair  of  the  glands 
is  found  trained  about  the  optic  ganglion  and  empties  into  ducts 
leading  to  the  mouth,  where  the  final  duct  empties.  In  the  back  of 
the  head  is  a  second  pair  of  glands,  and  in  the  fore  part  of  the 
thorax  a  third  pair,  these  two  sets  emptying  into  the  groove  in  the 
proboscis  when  the  latter  is  extended  for  sucking  purposes.  To 
these  glands  there  is  ascribed  digestive  functions  among  which 
is  changing  the  cane  sugar  of  the  flower  nectar  into  the  grape  sugar 
of  honey.  The  first  set  of  glands  is  found  largely  developed  in 
the  young  workers  and  not  present  at  all  in  the  best  queens  and 
in  the  drones.  The  function  of  feeding  the  young  larva  in  its 
early  stages  is  assigned  to  the  first  pair  of  glands. 

As  in  other  animals,  the  reproductive  organs  of  the  male  bee 
consist  of  a  pair  of  tests  located  in  the  abdomen.  Here  the  sper- 
matozoa are  developed  and  passed  through  the  tubes  leading  out- 
ward to  the  vasa  deferentia,  which  unite,  forming  the  ejaculatory 
duct.  Just  before  the  entrance  into  the  ejaculatory  duct  there  is  an 
enlargement  of  the  vas  deferens  into  a  well  defined  seminal  sack  or 
resting  place  for  the  spermatozoa.  Here  the  latter  are  kept  free 
and  alive  by  the  addition  of  mucus  from  connecting  glands.  Pass- 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING 


15 


ing  on  through  the  ejaculator  duct,  the  seminal  fluid  is  stored  away 
in  the  spermatophore,  a  sack  or  pouch-like  enlargement,  the  con- 
tents of  which,  at  the  time  of  copulation  with  the  female,  is  trans- 
fered  to  the  female,  thereafter  being  essential  to  her  reproductive 
function. 

In  the  female  the  ova  are  developed  in  the  two  ovaries  and 


Fig.  5 — Ovaries  of  Queen,  etc. 

A,  Abdomen  of  queen,  under  side  (magnified  eight  times) — P,  petiole;  O, 
O,  ovaries;  hs,  position  filled  by  honey  sac;  ds,  position  through  which  di- 
gestive system  passes;  od,  oviduct;  co.  d,  common  oviduct;  E,  egg-passing 
oviduct;  s,  spermatheca;  i,  intestine;  pb,  poison  bag;  p.  g.,  poison  gland;  St., 
sting;  p,  palpi.  B,  rudimentary  ovaries  of  ordinary  worker — sp,  rudimentary 
spermatheea.  C,  partially  developed  ovaries  of  fertile  worker — sp,  rudimen- 
tary spermatheca.  (From  Cheshire  by  courtesy  of  L.  Upcott  Gill,  London.) 

pass  down  the  fallopian  tubes,  or  oviducts,  to  the  vagina.  Here 
the  ova  are  fertilized  from  the  spermatheca,  where  the  spermatozoa 
from  the  male  or  drone  bee  have  been  deposited.  At  this  time  the 
egg  is  well  formed  and  has  a  shell,  and  the  sperm  enters  through  a 


16  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT  STATION 

small  opening,  the  micropyle.     Fertilization  is  accomplished  at  will, 
male  bees  being  produced  from  unfertilized  eggs. 

SOME   HABITS   OF  THE   BEES. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  sight  of  bees  flying  from  flower  to 
flower,  now  dusted  with  pollen  and  stopping  to  brush  themielve* 
with  their  legs  and  pack  away  the  golden  treasure  in  their  sacks, 
now  scrambling  into  deep  flowers  or  clinging  in  twisted  and  con- 
torted positions  to  extract  the  sweets  of  some  drooping  flower.  We 
find  that  we  can  chase  these  industrious  little  fellows,  shake  the 
flowers,  and  even  attempt  to  catch  them,  and  still  no  resentment  or 
attempt  to  sting  on  the  part  of  our  little  companions.  They  seem 
to  realize  the  neutrality  of  the  ground  and  only  skillfully  evade  our 
efforts,  flying  off  with  a  confident  hum  to  *ome  distant  flower  to 
continue  their  busy  work.  Not  so  when  we  stumble  upon  their 
homes  in  hollow  trees  or  about  the  eaves  of  the  barn  or  perhaps  the 
house,  or  out  in  the  orchard  where  the  bee  homes  devised  by  man 
for  his  own  convenience  are  inhabited  by  numbers  of  these  insects. 
Intrusion  here  in  the  sacred  precincts  of  the  home  are  at  once  re- 
sented as  many  of  us  have  no  doubt  discovered.  But  cautiously 
drawing  close  many  things  of  interest  can  be  noted  by  watching 
the  little  creatures  as  they  ply  their  busy  way  to  and  from  the  en- 
trance to  the  colony. 

The  heavy  laden  bees  come  down  flying  low  and  slowly,  with 
a  dull  resonant  hum,  dropping  wearily  on  the  alighting  board  like 
pelting  snow.  As  they  crawl  toward  the  entrance  they  are  imme- 
diately met  by  one  or  more  bees  which  are  always  on  the  alert,  ac- 
costing each  incomer.  Satisfied  that  the  intrant  is  of  the  colony — 
for  each  bee  belongs  to  a  particular  colony,  and  each  bee  know* 
ihe  bees  of  its  own  colony,  presumably  by  scent, — it  passes  in  to 
unload.  Meanwhile  other  bees  are  passing  out.  They  come  out 
with  a  quick  run.  Perhaps  at  first  they  seem  unable  to  rise.  This 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  air  sacks  contained  in  the  abdomen  are 
not  inflated,  but  these  are  soon  filled  through  the  spiracles  of  the 
sides,  and  the  bee  rises  and  flies  high  into  the  air.  If  there  is  no 
main  harvest  of  honey  on,  the  bee  will  be  seen  perhaps  to  describe 
one  or  two  circles  and  then  start  off  like  an  arrow.  But  if  honey 
is  to  be  had  in  abundance  in  a  particular  direction,  the  bees  pass  out 
and  with  a  dart  in  the  given  direction  are  lost  in  the  air  above.  In 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING. 


PLATE  I. 


la,  view  of  outside  of  hind  leg  of  worker  bee;  Ib,  view  of  inside  of 
same;  2,  view  of  head  of  worker  bee  from  the  front;  3,  left  wings  of 
worker  bee  extended  as  for  flight-  (Photograph  by  R.  A.  Cooley.) 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING. 


PLATE  II. 


Photomicrograph  of  hairs  from  a  honey  bee.     (Photograph  by  R. 
A.  Cooley.) 


Edge  of  hind  wing  of  bee  showing  hooks  by  which  the  two  wings 
are  attached.     (Photograph  by  R.  A.  Cooley.) 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  17 

their  haste  they  fly  in  zig-zag  darts  and  with  a  clear  ringing  note. 

Watching  the  bees  thus  we  may  occasionally  hear  a  coarse  buz- 
zing note  and  a  larger  and  more  clumsy  bee  will  drop  down  on  the 
alighting  board.  These  are  the  males  or  drone  bees,  and  are  50 
named  because  they  are  bees  of  leHsure,  n'ever  working  in  the  field 
or  in  the  colony.  If  it  should  happen  to  be  about  two  or  three  tn 
the  afternoon  of  a  bright  spring  day,  we  may  witness  a  very  inter- 
esting exercise  which  at  first,  to  the  novice,  may  be  mistaken  for 
the  issuing  of  the  proverbial  swarm.  Suddenly  numbers  of  bees 
will  rush  out  quite  excitedly  and  with  their  heads  toward  the  col- 
cny  will  actively  fly  in  ever  increasing  semicircles.  These  are  the 
young  bees  taking  their  daily  flight  to  gain  deftness  in  the  handling 
of  their  wings,  and  also  to  mark  the  location  of  the  colony,  so  that 
later  they  can  easily  find  it  when  returning  from  the  field  with  stores, 
for  the  work  of  gathering  honey  and  pollen,  is  done  by  the  older 
bees.  At  present  these  young  bees  are  serving  an  apprenticeship 
in  the  hives  as  nurses,  and  this  flight  is  their  daily  exercise  and 
recreation  from  their  busy  life  indoors.  Their  flight  lasts  usually 
about  twenty  minutes,  and  then  all  is  quiet  again,  except  for  the 
dull  hum  of  the  incoming  bees  laden  with  their  stores.  Occasion- 
ally the  monotony  may  be  broken  by  the  excitement  of  repelling  an 
invader  in  the  shape  of  a  bee  from  another  colony,  or  an  intrus- 
ion by  some  other  insect,  a  wasp  or  an  ant,  perhaps.  Tkese  invad- 
ers are  taken  care  of  by  the  guards  already  spoken  of,  and  being- 
dragged  to  the  edge  of  the  alighting  board,  are  set  free.  These 
stray  bees  we  call  robbers,  as  they  go  from  hive  to  hive  seeking  to 
get  admission  for  the  purpose  of  stealing.  They  ar,e  not  unusually 
shiny  black,  as  the  coat  of  hair  has  been  worn  of!  by  the  many  en- 
counters they  have  experienced. 

If  we  observe  closely  we  may  see  a  number  of  dead  bees  on  the 
ground,  especially  if  it  is  early  in  the  spring,  as  the  death  rate  of 
old  bees  is  very  great  at  that  time  of  the  year.  We  may  happen  to 
see  a  couple  of  bees  come  out  tugging  at  a  corpse  to  get  it  out  of  the 
colony.  Successful  in  getting  a  good  hold,  one  of  the  bees,  having- 
gotten  the  burden  close  to  the  edge  of  the  alighting  board,  will  rise 
in  the  air  and  fly  slowly  away,  dropping  its  burden  some  yards  from 
the  colony,  for  the  bees  are  very  mindful  of  the  cleanliness  of  their 
habitation. 

Getting  somewhat  bolder,  we  may  come  close  to  the  entrance 


18  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

of  the  colony  and  by  placing  the  fingers  near  the  entrance,  we  can 
feel  a  current  of  air  being  driven  in  and  out  of  the  colony.  This  is 
done  by  the  buzzing  of  a  chain  of  bees  through  the  colony,  and  so 
a  perfect  system  of  ventilation  is  kept  up.  If  the  bees  are  gathering 
honey  rapidly  we  may  observe  a  sickish  sweet  odor  of  new  honey 
and  hear,  especially  at  night,  a  continuous  roar.  These  are  the 
bees,  who,  having  toiled  all  day  in  the  harvest  fields,  spend  the 
hours  of  night  driving  a  current  of  air  through  the  hive  to  evapor- 
ate the  new  honey,  for  the  nectar  as  gathered  has  a  large  percen- 
tage of  water  in  it,  which  must  be  removed.  An  interesting  experi- 
ment was  run  once  with  a  hive  on  the  scales  and  a  record  of  the 
weight  made  each  evening  and  morning,  with  the  result  of  a  de- 
crease in-  the  gross  increase  of  the  day  before  of  about  a  third,  due 
to  evaporation  of  water. 

With  these  few  outward  observations  let  us  open  the  colony 
and  learn  something  of  the  economy  of  the  home  life.  The  combs 
are  built  vertical  and  parallel,  suspended  from  above  and  running 
from  front  to  rear.  Cells  of  four  kinds  are  distinguishable.  By  far 
the  larger  number  of  these  are  the  worker  cells.  The  honey  cells 
are  of  the  same  basal  size,  but  are  slanted  -upward,  and  so  the  open- 
ing is  somewhat  distorted.  The  drone  cells  are  larger  and  not  so 
numerous.  The  queen  cells,  though  only  present  at  certain  times 
in  full  size,  are  usually  to  be  found  as  mere  basal  cells  or  cups 
placed  along  the  edges  of  the  combs  or  any  projection  of  the  combs. 
Trie  brood  is  normally  confined  to  the  lower,  central  and  front 
portions  of  the  combs, — that  is,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  entrance. 
Above,  to  the  rear  and  at  the  sides,  are  "cells  containing  pollen,  and 
outside  of  the  pollen  circle  the  honey  is  stored.  ,  So  that  a  vertical, 
longitudinal  section  through  the  colony  would  show  the  honey 
stored  above  and  to  the  rear,  next  inside  a  few  cells  of  pollen,  and 
then  the  brood.  The  queen  in  starting  brood  in  an  unoccupied 
comb,  first  deposits  eggs  in  the  center  of  the  brood  portion  of  .the 
comb,  and  as  she  continues  uses  the  comb  in  increasing  circles. 
Thus  the  oldest  brood  may  be  found  in  the  center,  the  younger 
brood  on  the  outside  and  the  eggs  on  the  outermost  edge.  How- 
ever, when  the  brood  in  the  center  has  matured  and  emerged  it  is 
replaced  by  eggs  for  a  second  brood. 

The  queen  bee  lays  all  the  eggs, — fertilized  eggs  producing 
females  and  unfertilized  eggs,  males.  The  females  are  of  two  kinds, 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  19 

those  fully  developed  for  reproduction,  and  known  as  the  queens, 
and  those  whose  reproductive  organs  are  undeveloped,  but  which 
are  more  highly  developed  along  other  lines  and  which  serve  as  the 
laborers  of  the  colony  and  are  called  workers.  The  males  are  the 
drones  and  do  no  work,  but  they  are  absolutely  necessary  in  any 
apiary  unless  fertilized  queens  are  to  be  continually  introduced  as 
needed  from  some  other  apiary.  An  ordinary  colony  will  have  one 
queen,  two  to  three  hundred  drones,  and  twenty  to  thirty  thousand 
workers. 


E"ig.   6. — Que^n  cells   and  worker  brood   in  various   stages    (Benton,   Manual 
of  the  Honey  Bee,  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture.) 

We  have  said  that  the  queens  and  workers  come  alike  from  the 
fertilized  eggs.  The  difference  in  development  is  due  to  the  charac- 
ter and  amount  of  food  supplied  the  growing  larvae.  The  time  spent 
in  the  egg  stage  after  deposition  is  alike  for  all,  three  days.  The 
eggs  then  hatch  into  small  white  grubs  or  larvae  and  remain  in  this 
stage  five  and  a  half  days  for  the  queen,  or  five  days  for  the  worker. 
For  the  first  three  days  the  larvae  are  fed  the  secretion  from  the 
glands  of  the  head  of  the  nurse  bees  (young  bees  less  than  two  weeks 
old  in  general.)  Then  the  worker  larvae  are  fed  on  honey  and 
'later  pollen  until  the  pupa  state  of  thirteen  days.  The  larva  des- 


20  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

tined  to  become  a  queen,  however,  is  continued  upon  this  glandular 
secretion  or  royal  jelly,  as  it  is  called,  and  the  cell  enlarged  and  built 
down  to  permit  the  proper  growth  of  the  inmate.  A  large  quantity 
of  the  royal  jelly  is  then  deposited  in  the  cell  and  the  cell  is  sealed 
up.  In  seven  days,  under  this  rich"  food  the  queen  emerges.  After 
scvera!  days,  usually  not  longer  than  a  week,  the  young  virgin 
queen  flies  out  to  meet  the  drone  and  returns  fertilized  for  life  and 
soon  begins  to  deposit  eggs. 

The  male  or  drone  bees,  as  has  been  said,  come  from  unfertilized 
eggs  and  so  can  be  produced  by  a  virgin  queen  or  at  will  by  a  fer- 
tilized queen.  The  egg  hatches  in  three  days  and,  after  three  days 
of  feeding  upon  the  royal  jelly,  the  larva  is  fed  honey  and  pollen  for 
three  more  days  when  it  pupates.  After  fifteen  days  in  the  quies- 
cent or  pupal  stage  the  grown  bee  emerges.  Drones  are  usually 
only  to  be  found  during  the  spring  and  early  summer  months  when 
there  are  young  queens  to  be  fertilized.  Late  in  the  summer,  when 
the  honey  harvest  wanes,  the  workers  drive  out  the  proverbially 
lazy  drones  and  worry  and 'starve  them  to  death. 

It  is  not  to  be  inferred  from  the  fact  of  the  workers  being  class- 
ed as  undeveloped  females,  that  they  are  ir»  any  sense,  except  in  re- 
productive powers,  the  inferior  of  the  queen.  In  fact,  they  are  much 
more  highly  developed  in  almost  all  other  directions,  of  necessity, 
in  order  to  perform  their  manifold  duties.  The  drones  are  believed 
to  excel  the  queen  in  powers  of  sight  and  scent.  This  is  found  to 
be  in  keeping  with  the  fact  that  they  have  to  seek  out  the  virgin 
queens  upon  their  bridal  flight. 

Each  colony  normally  swarms  each  spring.  Queen  cells  are 
started  as  described,  usually  about  a  dozen  or  so  according  to  the 
strength  of  the  colony.  When  the  first  cell  is  sealed,  the  swarm 
composed  of  all  the  bees  that  can  fly,  together  with  the  old  queen, 
issue  forth.  This  usually  takes  place  between  nine  o'clock  and  noon, 
a  swarm  rarely  issuing  after  one  o'clock  unless  unfavorable  weather 
has  kept  the  bees  in.  Just  previous  to  swarming  the  bees  gorge 
themselves  with  honey  and  are  not  inclined  in  the  least  to  sting. 
The  swarming  note  is  a  peculiar  resonant  one  and,  if  there  are  any 
other  colonies  in  the  vicinity  ready  to  swarm,  they  are  liable  to 
take  up  the  note,  and  running  excitedly  about  the  entrance,  begin 
to  pile  out  like  beans  poured  from  a  peck  measure.  After  circling; 
about  in  the  air  a  very  few  minutes,  the  queen  lights  and  the  bees 


PRACTICAL,  BEEKEEPING  21 

cluster  very  rapidly  and  are  soon  quiet.  A  little  later  bees  will  be 
seen  flying  to  and  from  the  cluster  which  are  termed  scouts.  They 
are  out  looking  for  a  new  home.  When  a  suitable  place  for  a  new 
home  is  reported,  usually  within  a  couple  of  hours,  the  cluster  dis- 
solves and  the  bees  ,flying  high,  move  very  rapidly  in  the  direction 
of  the  hollow  tree  or  other  place  selected.  The  tees,  having  pre- 
viously gorged  themselves  with  honey  and  soon  secreting  wax,  and, 
clustering  in  vertical  chains  forming  a  net-work,  soon  have  ihe  new 
combs  started  and  the  gathering  of  honey  and  pollen  and  the  deposi- 
tion of  eggs  underway. 

If  the  parent  colony  is  strong  enough,  a  week  later,  when  the 
first  young  queen  comes  out,  a  second  swarm  may  be  cast  and  them 
a  third  and  even  a  fourth,  in  some  instances.  Finally  one  of  th« 
young  queens  takes  possession  of  the  colony  and  the  bees  destroy 
the  other  queens  by  cutting  into  the  tender  sides  of  the  cells,  drag- 
ging the  queen  out  and  throwing  her  out,  dead.  A  peculiar  note  is 
sounded  by  the  young  queens  in  a  hive  when  loose  and  when  other 
queens  are  being  held  in  the  cells  by  the  bees,  as  is  sometimes  the 
case.  This  note  is  called  piping,  and  is  indicative  of  the  queen's 
distress  and  excitement.  She  will,  from  time  to  time,  cling  closely 
to  the  comb  and,  after  issuing  her  plaintive  note,  rush  about  ex- 
citedly. If  permitted  by  the  bees,  she  will  get  at  the  cells  and  des- 
troy the  other  queens. 

After  the  queen  has  mated,  the  worker  bees  in  their  excitement 
will  sometimes  pitch  upon  her  and  form  a  ball.  This  is  called 
"balling"  a  queen.  The  same  thing  may  take  place  if  two  or  more 
swarms  get  united,  or  if  strange  queens  get  into  a  colony.  Should 
a  colony  thus  destroy  its  queen  or  become  queenless  in  any  other 
way,  the  bees,  on  being  disturbed,  will  set  up  a  characteristic  roar. 
The  individual  bees  will  buzz  excitedly  and  then  stop  for  an  instant 
and  then  buzz  again.  This  roaring  is  almost  a  positive  evidence  of 
the  colony's  queenless  condition.  Should  the  colony  not  have  any 
eggs,  or  larvae  under  three  days  old,  a  queen  cannot  be  produced  by 
them.  In  the  course  of  time  the  bees,  realizing  the  hopelessly 
queenless  condition,  attempt,  by  feeding  up  worker  bees,  to  regener- 
ate the  colony.  These  workers  are  termed  laying  workers  and  al- 
though their  ovaries  become  filled  with  eggs,  they  are  never  capa- 
ble of  being  fertilized,  and  so  can  produce  nothing  but  drones  of  an 
inferior  grade,  as  they  are  reared  in  worker  cells.  The  food  given 


22  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT  STATION 

these  laying  workers  is  the  royal  jelly,  believed  to  be  fed  queens 
not  only  during  development  but  also  during  the  egg  laying  sea- 
son. Quite  commonly  queens  will  be  seen  to  pass  about  the  comb 
and  be  thus  fed  by  workers.  Workers  themselves  also,  when  filled 
with  honey,  will  divide  their  stores  with  other  bees,  showing  an 
interesting  trait  of  extreme  socialism. 

For  the  winter  the  bees  cluster  compactly  and  quietly,  thus 
retaining  the  heat  generated  by  feeding  upon  honey.  The  queen 
ceases  to  lay,  beginning  again  about  February  or  March  in  this 
climate.  Should  any  immovable  object,  like  a  snail  or  mouse,  get 
into  the  hive  and  die,  the  bees,  realizing  their  inability  to  move  the 
burden  will  coat  it  over  with  propolis,  a  sticky  substance  gathered 
from  bursting  buds  in  the  spring  and  summer  and  carried  in  the 
same  manner  as  pollen  on  the  legs.  This  substance  is  used  to  fill 
up  all  crevices  and  to  close  all  openings  against  cold  weather,  as 
well  as  to  serve  the  immediate  function  of  securing  all  movable  ob- 
jects in  the  hive. 

If  the  bees  are  angered  they  emit  a  sharp  shrill  note  and  fly 
excitedly  in  jerks.  The  experienced  bee  keeper  learns  to  recognize 
all  the  various  notes  of  his  bees.  Even  when  somewhat  enraged 
the  average  bee  hesitates  to  use  her  sting  and  will  often  crawl  about 
after  lighting,  her  courage  seeming  to  fail  her  at  the  last  moment. 
The  bee  also  has  a  characteristic  note  of  joy,  which  can  be  noticed 
when  a  cluster  of  tired  bees  are  permitted  to  crawl  into  a  colony. 
It  is  a  resonant  steady  buzz,  of  medium  pitch,  not  unlike  the  note 
emitted  when  ripening  honey  yet  of  a  higher  pitch. 

VARIETIES   OF   BEES  AND  THEIR   GEOGRAPHICAL   DIVISION 

Having  become  somewhat  familiar  with  the  structure  and 
some  of  the  habits  of  bees,  we  will  now  consider  some  of  the  special 
characteristics  of  the  various  races  of  bees  and  the  geographical  dis- 
tribution of  the  several  races.  There  are  no  native  honey  bees  of 
America,  the  first  colony  having  been  brought,  it  is  believed,  to 
Georgia  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Bees  have  steadily  moved 
westward  and  were  considered  by  the  Indians  as  the  fore-runners 
cf  the  white  man.  The  most  common  bees  now  are  those  commonly 
spoken  of  as  hybrids.  These  are  German  or  Black  bees  mixed  \\ith 
Italians. 

The   German  or  black  or  brown  bees,  as  they  are  sometimes 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  23 

called,  are  small  and  black  in  color.  They  are  very  excitable  and 
cross,  attacking  passers-by  at  some  distance  from  the  colonies. 
They  are  very  difficult  and  unsatisfactory  to  handle  because  of  their 
tendency  to  run  from  the  combs  and  drop  off  in  great  bunches,  mak- 
ing it  very  difficult  to  find  their  queen.  They  are  great  propolizers 
and  so  stick  everything  fast,  and  hence  are  very  hard  to  manipulate. 
They  do  not  cluster  in  winter  very  well  and  are  slow  to  build  up  in 
the  spring.  They  are,  however,  fair  honey  producers,  capping  their 
honey  very  evenly,  with  nice  white  caps.  They  are  more  prone  to 
rob  than  other  bees,  and  at  the  least  slackening  in  the  honey  harvest, 
will  stop  brood  rearing. 

Italian  bees  were  first  imported  in  1860  and  since  then  have  be- 
come quite  generally  distributed.  The  American  type,  through  a 
long  process  of  selection,  has  changed  to  a  golden  yellow,  often  with 
five  full  bands  somewhat  in  contrast  to  the  leathery  natives  of  Italy, 
These  bees  are  larger  than  the  blacks  and  much  gentler,  remaining1 
quietly  on  the  combs  when  opened.  They  do  not  exhibit  those  per- 
nicious traits  of  the  black  bee,  of  flying  out  and  attacking  one  on 
approaching  the  colony.  The  queens  are  more  prolific,  still  the 
colonies  after  the  long  winter  months  are  inclined  to  dwindle  and 
not  build  up  rapidly.  This  poor  wintering  may  be  due  somewhat  to 
the  fact  that  Italy  has  a  mild  winter  climate  and  early  spring,  and 
the  bees  have  become  accustomed  to  this  environment  and  find  it 
hard  to  adjust  themselves  to  our  rigorous  northern  climate. 

Cyprians  were  the  next  kind  introduced,  being  brought  over  '"ti 
1880.  These  bees  are  of  a  light  yellow  color,  very  active  and  make 
a  good  showing  by  their  active  movements  as  they  fly  in  the  sun- 
light in  front  of  their  hives.  They  are  somewhat  smaller  than  the 
Italians  and  have  more  pointed  bodies,  and  their  distinguishing 
mark  is  a  bright  yellow  shield  or  half  moon  on  the  thorax,  between 
the  hind  wings.  The  Cyprians  are  very  prolific  and  winter  well. 
They  are  most  excellent  honey  gatherers,  having  the  longest  tongues 
of  any  honey  bees,  yet  they  fill  their  honey  cells  so  full  before  cap- 
ping that  a  watery  appearance  is  given  the  combs,  and  so  are  not 
the  best  bees  for  the  production  of  comb  honey.  They  remain  on 
the  combs  like  Italians,  yet  can  be  very  easily  shaken  like  the 
blacks.  They  do  not  habitually  attack  passers-by,  yet  when  once 
aroused,  are  liable  to  remain  angry  for  a  larger  time.  They  are  very 
excitable  and  resent  jarring  or  the  letting  of  light  into  their  hives 


24  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

suddenly.  They  cannot  be  quelled  by  smoke  like  other  bees,  but 
when  smoked  a  little,  respond  well.  If  smoked  too  much,  they 
stand  and  sizzle,  and  as  soon  as  the  smoke  clears  away,  retaliate 
with  vigor. 

Closely  related  to  the  Cyprians,  exhibiting  many  of  their  traits, 
are  the  Syrians,  found  on  the  mainland  from  Cyprus  and  north  of 
Mt.  Carmel.  They  are  not  as  constant  a  race  showing  greater  vari- 
ation in  markings  and  temperament.  They  begin  to  show  the 
gray  of  the  bees  found  a  little  farther  north.  The  queens  are  larger 
than  Cyprians,  yet  not  so  active.  South  of  Mt.  Carmel  are  found  the 
Palestine  or  Holy  Land  bees.  These  bees  again  exhibit  the  trait 
of  running  from  the  combs  and,  even  more,  will  run  upon  the  hands 
and  bite  viciously  like  ants,  which,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  are  neat 
relatives  of  bees.  They  show  less  yellow,  and  are  inclined  to  rob. 
They  produce  fertile  workers,  and  are  very  poor  winterers.  They 
are  nearly  as  difficult  to  handle  as  Egyptians,  which  resemble  them 
in  many  points.  They  are,  however,  good  honey  gatherers  and 
quite  prolific.  The  Persian  bees  are,  in  general,  very  similar  to  the 
preceding  Oriental  races  described.  The  Tunisian,  sometimes 
called  Punicebees,  are  not  unlike  this  general  Oriental  type.  They 
are  perhaps  the  greatest  propolis  gatherers  of  all  bees.  Coming 
northward  again  we  may  cite  the  Dalmatian  bees  found  on  the  east- 
ern shores  of  the  Adriatic.  Several  attempts  at  importing  these 
bees  have  failed.  There  appear,  from  reports,  to  be  two  varieties, 
one  yellow  and  one  gray,  which  will  be  seen  to  be  true  of  several 
races  and  so  not  such  a  striking  thing  as  at  first  it  would  seem  to  be. 

Closely  following  the  importation  of  the  Cyprian  and  other 
Oriental  bees  came  the  importation  of  the  Carniolans,  from  the  small 
province  of  Carniola,  in  the  southern  part  of  Austria.  Coming  from 
the  Carnic  Alps,  these  bees  are  found  to  be  the  best  winterers  for 
our  northern  climate.  They  are,  with  perhaps  one  exception  the 
gentlest  bees  known.  The  queens  are  quite  prolific  and  the  colon- 
ies, in  contrast  to  the  Italians,  build  up  very  rapidly  in  the  early 
spring.  There  has  been  some  objection  raised  to  the  fact  that  they 
swarm  excessively.  This  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that,  when 
first  introduced,  beekeepers  were  used  to  the  spring  dwindling  of 
Italians,  and  so  governed  accordingly  and  crowded  the  prolific 
Carniolans  in  the  early  spring,  resulting  in  the  casting  of  early 
and  numerous  swarms.  If  these  bees  be  given  plenty  of  room  and 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  25 

ventilation,  swarming  is  found  to  be  no  more  prevalent  among  them 
than  among  other  bees  of  prolific  character.  The  workers  are  larger 
than  most  bees  and  are  strong  flyers  and  good  honey  gatherers,  of 
a  dusty  gray  appearance,  caused  by  gray  hairs  in  well  defined  rings 
on  the  abdomen.  The  drones  are  the  largest  of  any  honey  bees  and 
of  a  grayish  color.  The  queens  are  large  and  vary  from  light 
leathery  color  to  an  almost  bronze  black.  The  Carniolans  gather  the 
least  propolis  of  any  known  bees.  They  can  be  easily  handled  at 
night,  not  flying  and  crawling  as  most  bees  do.  When  handled  in 
the  daytime  they  remain  quietly  on  the  combs  and  the  rare  spec- 
tacle of  a  queen  quietly  laying  eggs  while  the  hive  is  open  has  been 
observed  on  a  comb,  so  unconcerned  are  the  bees. 

Another  strain  of  bees  recently  brought  to  the  notice  of  the 
beekeeping  world,  yet  not  extensively  imported,  are  the  Banater  bees 
of  Hungary.  These  bees  resemble  in  appearance  the  Carniolans 
but  are  smaller  and  not  quite  so  gray,  there  being  more  of  a  ten- 
dency to  show  yellow.  It  is  said  by  Hungarian  beekeepers  that 
they  have  no  trouble  from  excessive  swarming  with  their  bees,  and 
that  the  Banater  bees  are  prolific  and  good  honey  gatherers.  Far- 
ther east,  over  in  the  Siebenberg  region,  more  yellow  is  noticed  in 
the  markings.  This  is  true  as  one  journeys  southeastward  through 
Servia,  Roumellia  into  Turkey.  The  writer  also  noticed  a  steady 
increase  of  excitability  shading  off  into  the  very  excitable  bees  of 
the  Orient. 

Continuing  the  belt  of  gray  bees  of  Carniola  and  Hungary  are 
the  Caucasians  found  in  the  province  of  Caucasus,  in  the  region  of 
Southern  Russia,  between  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Caspian  Sea. 
These  bees  are  smaller  even  than  the  Banater  bees,  with  more  point- 
ed bodies,  and  even  more  dusty  gray  than  the  Carniolans.  They 
rival  the  Carniolans  in  gentleness  of  temperament  and  perhaps  are 
the  most  gentle  bees  yet  known  to  the  world.  So  very  pronounced 
is  this  characteristic  that  they  have  been  popularly  called  stingless, 
although  they  have  well  developed  stingers  and  can  be  provoked 
to  use  them  occasionally.  These  bees  are  being  imported  quite  ex- 
tensively and  seem  to  give  general  satisfaction  wherever  introduced. 
Toward  the  south  the  yellow  type  begins  to  appear,  bearing  out  the 
general  tendency  noticed  in  the  other  bees  of  central  Europe,  al- 
ready discussed. 

In  general  it  will  be  noticed  that  the  bees  of  north  Europe  are 


26  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT  STATION 

black,  cross  and  poor  winterers.  South  of  these  is  a  belt  of  gray, 
gentle  bees, — the  Carniolans,  Dalmatians,  Banaters,  and  Caucasians. 
Farther  south  all  of  these  races  are  increasingly  yellow  and  have 
their  gentle  temperaments  somewhat  modified.  South  of  this  belt 
is  a  yellow  belt,  closely  typified  by  the  Italians  and  the  Cyprians. 
East  and  to  the  south  again  are  found  cross,  propolis  gathering,  and 
very  excitable  bees,  the  extreme  types  being  the  Egyptians  and  the 
Tunisians. 

There  remains  yet  to  be  discussed  a  very  successful  bee  pro- 
duced by  crossing  and  known  as  the  Cyprio-Carniolan  bees.  This 
cross  is  made  by  mating  daughters  of  pure  Cyprian  queens  to  drones 
of  Carniolan  blood.  It  has  been  found  that  the  male  bee  carries  the 
temperament  and  the  queen  bee  the  honey  gathering  and  the  pro- 
lific characteristics.  This  cross  unites  the  desirable  qualities  of  the 
Carniolans  with  the  great  prolific  and  honey  gatherng  powers  of 
the  Cyprians,  and  thus  produces  a  strain  most  valuable  from  a  com- 
mercial standpoint.  A  practical  difficulty  in  growing  these  bees  is 
that  the  type  has  not  been  established,  and  breeding  from  the 
second  generation  and  the  third  generation  results  disastrously,  in 
that  the  progeny  revert  to  the  original  characters  and  do  not  breed 
true.  This  necessitates  continuous  breeding  from  pure  stock. 

BEES  AND  FLOWERS— HONEY  PRODUCING   PLANTS 

One  of  the  most  fascinating. things  in  nature  is  the  study  of 
the  inter-dependence  of  flowers  and  insects,  more  especially  the 
bees.  How  many  of  us  in  our  daily  rounds  stop  to  think  why  all 
the  unfolding  of  beauty  displayed  by  the  little  flower  at  our  feet? 
Why  these  bright  variegated  colors  and  all  this  fragrance  and  these 
stores  of  sweets?  Is  it  a  startling  statement  to  say  that  these  things 
displayed  by  the  flower,  that  this  banquet  spread,  are  for  the  insects, 
— for  the  humming  bees  that  pass  by  unheeded  or  shunned  by  the 
majority  of  us  all?  How  we  may  well  envy  the  little  busy  fellows  as 
they  musically  ply  their  way,  flying  from  place  to  place  on  the 
bright  spring  days,  in  among  these  gorgeous  flowers ! 

Ecology,  the  science  of  the  relation  of  insects  to  their  environ- 
ment, and  botany  tell  us  that  the  flowers  through  a  long  process 
of  natural  selection,  have  developed  these  bright  colors  for  the  pur- 
pose of  attracting  insect  visitors  which,  in  turn,  render  the  flower 
a  valuable  service  as  will  be  seen  later.  Many  flowers  in  addition 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  27 

to  the  bright  colored  corolla  have  also  at  the  base  of  each  petal  a 
small  vesicle  called  a  nectary  for  the  secretion  of  nectar.  Leading 
to  this  nectary  and  converging  toward  it  are  often  numerous  dark 
or  black  lines  which  serve  to  guide  the  visiting  bees  to 'where  they 
can  secure  the  nectar.  Every  facility  is  thus  tendered  the  bees  in 
their  quest  for  honey.  To  repay  the  flower  for  all  its  service,  the 
bee  renders  in  turn,  an  equivalent  of  far  reaching  magnitude. 
Firmly  implanted  throughout  all  nature  is  the  instinct  of  self  preser- 
vation and  perpetuation  by  the  introduction  of  new  and  undissipated 
vitality  in  reproduction.  This  law  is  so  comprehensive  as  to  in- 
clude plants  as  well  as  animals.  Before  a  seed  can  start  its  growth 
il  must  receive  the  impetus  from  the  pollen  laden  stamen.  In  many 
flowers  both  the  ovary,  with  its  pistil,  and  the  stamens,  with  their 
anthers  filled  with  pollen,  may  be  found.  In  a  great  many  flowers 
where  they  both  occur,  however,  the  stamens  are  so  placed  that  the 
pollen  is  not  likely  to  come  in.  contact  with  the  pistil,  and  in  some 
flowers  this  tendency  to  avoid  self  fertilization  is  further  manifested 
by  the  stamens  bearing  their  pollen  at  a  different  time  than  when 
the  pistil  is  in  a  receptive  condition  for  the  pollen.  In  a  number  of 
tiees,  as  for  instance  the  common  poplars,  the  staminate  flowers 
are  borne  on  separate  trees  from  the  pistillate,  making  self  pollen- 
ation  impossible.  Still  other  trees,  (e.  g.  among  pears  and  in  nearly 
all  varieties  of  plum)  while  capable  of  being  pollinated  from  their 
own  stamens,  are  yet  absolutely  self  sterile ;  that  is,  before  fruit  will 
set  they  must  be  supplied  with  pollen  from  a  distinct  horticultural 
variety. 

In  the  chapter  on  the  habits  of  bees,  we  noted  that  bees  gather- 
ed pollen  for  the  feeding  of  their  young.  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  a 
bee  when  out  gathering  a  certain  kind  of  pollen  will  always  com- 
plete her  load  with  the  same  kind  of  pollen  and  will  never  pass  from 
one  species  to  another;  e.  g.  from  poplar  to  a  fruit  tree  or  vice- 
versa.  Nature's  economy  in  this  is  self  evident.  As  the  bee  flies 
from  flower  to  flower  she  becomes  dusted  with  pollen  and  in  the 
course  of  her  journey,  an  interchange  of  pollen  is  effected.  It  is 
plain  that  there  would  be  no  object  in  the  interchange  of  pollen  from 
xtwo  distinct  species,  as  fertilization  only  in  very  rare  instances,  if 
ever,  would  result.  To  facilitate  pollenation  some  flowers  have  be- 
come strikingly  modified  through  natural  selection.  Let  us  say 
here  that  there  can  be  no  other  purpose  for  the  secretion  of  nectar 


28  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT  STATION 

than  to  attract  bees  and  other  insects,  and  to  secure  cross  fertiliza- 
tion. So  the  bee,  not  only  when  she  is  gathering  pollen,  but 
also  when  she  is  gathering  honey,  becomes  the  inadvertent  agent  of 
flowers  in  their  cross  pollenation. 

On  examining  one  of  the  so  called  papilionacious  blossoms, — 
a  pea  for  example — it  will  be  noticed  that  the  keel  petals  are  rigid 
and  that  the  bee,  upon  alighting  upon  the  olae,  depresses  the  latter 
and  brings  the  style  of  the  pistil  in  contact  with  the  pollen  laden 
hairs  of  the  underside  of  the  bee,  resulting  in  fertilization.  Then, 
as  the  bee  advances  and  sips  up  the  nectar,  a  fresh  supply  of  pollen 
is  gotten,  which  in  turn  serves  to  fertilize  the  next  blossom  visited. 

For  instances  of  these  modifications  the  interested  reader  will 
have  to  refer  to  Darwin,  and  other  writers,  as  we  cannot  here 
describe  many  of  them.  The  famous  orchid  may,  however,  be  cited 
here  as  an  example  of  the  employment  of  a  mechanical  device  to 
insure  cross  fertilization.  In  the  orchid  there  is  but  one  anther,  and 
this  is  so  placed  as  to  come  in  contact  with  the  head  of  the  bee  when 
she  enters  the  flower.  The  honey  in  the  nectary  is  protected  by  a 
thin  membrane,  the  irritation  of  which  causes  the  rupturing  of 
the  membrane  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  the  anther  cells  in  contact 
with  a  viscid  surface  and  in  turn  with  the  head  of  the  bee.  As  the 
bee  remains  an  instant  sipping  up  the  nectar  the  anther  has  time  to 
set  and  then  the  bee  emerges  bearing  a  structure  resembling  a 
couple  of  horns  on  her  head.  The  weight  of  the  anthers  bends  the 
appendage  down  so  that,  by  the  time  the  bee  reaches  the  next  flower, 
the  anthers  are  in  the  right  position  to  touch  the  stigmatic  surface  of 
the  pistil  and  not  be  coincident  with  the  anther  of  the  flower  visited. 

With  this  brief  discussion  of  the  relation  between  bees  and 
flowers  we  will  pass  to  a  consideration  of  some  of  the  leading  honey 
plants. 

Among  the  first  plants  to  bloom  early  in  the  spring  are  the 
willows.  While  affording  little  or  no  honey,  willows  are  a  great 
source  of  pollen,  coming  at  just  the  time  when  it  is  most  needed, 
when  the  bees  are  rearing  brood  and  have  many  developing  bees  to 
feed.  Dandelions  produce  pollen  at  this  season  and  are  frequented. 
Huckleberries  are  also  visited  by  the  bees  as  well  as  service 
berries  and  barberries.  Along  the  creek  bottoms  and  blossoming  in 
May  are  many  wild  gooseberries  from  which  a  considerable  yield  of 
honey  may  be  had.  Fruit  trees  particularly  apples,  are  now  being 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  29 

grown  quite  extensively  in  some  parts  of  the  state  and  afford  a  not 
unimportant  source  of  honey^  of  a  fine  flavor.  All  of  these  sources, 
however,  come  at  a  time  to  render  them  of  not  much  consequence 
as  sources  of  surplus  honey.  They  serve,  however,  to  build  up  the 
colonies  for  the  more  extensive  yields  which  follow. 

Usually  by  the  time  raspberries  bloom  the  bees  are  quite  strong 
and  in  localities  where  these  are  abundant,  either  in  the  mountain 
canyons  or  in  districts  where  raspberries  are  grown  extensively, 
honey  of  a  very  fine  flavor  may  be  obtained.  Mints  of  all  kinds  are 
usually  abundant  honey  yielders.  The  cleone  or  spider  plant,  found 
growing  wild  along  the  roads  and  popularly  called,  in  Colorado,  the 
Rocky  Mountain  bee  plant,  yields  honey  of  a  good  quality. 

By  far  the  greatest  yields  of  honey  in  the  state  come  from  the 
clovers.  Chief  among  these  is  alsike  clover,  grown  extensively  for 
hay.  This  usually  begins  to  bloom  about  the  middle  of  June,  in  the 
Gallatin  Valley,  continuing  until  about  the  tenth  of  August.  The 
main  yield  comes  in  July  and  we  registered  a  gain  of  eleven  pounds 
by  an  average  colony  in  a  single  day, — giving  a  net  gain  of  some 
six  pounds  after  evaporation  had  been  accomplished  by  the  bees  over 
night.  Alsike  clover  honey  is  of  a  very  light  and  clear  grade,  some* 
what  heavier  than  white  clover, — that  is,  having  more  body. 

Alfalfa,  or  lucern  is  an  extensively  grown  forage  crop  and  fur- 
nishes a  light  honey  of  a  high  grade.  In  some  parts  of  the  State  this 
is  the  main  yield  and  where  three  or  four  crops  are  had,  if  allowed 
to  bloom  well  before  cutting,  can  be  made  to  last  over  a  consider- 
able portion  of  the  summer.  White  clover  is  working  in  in  the  more 
settled  valleys  and  is  found  along  the  road  side,  in  the  corners  of 
fields  and  along  the  creek  bottoms.  Where  white  clover  and  alsike 
clover  bloom  at  the  same  time  the  bees  seem  to  show  a  decided 
preference  for  the  latter.  A  striking  instance  was  noted  when  the 
campus  at  the  College  was  white  with  the  blossoms  of  white  clover 
one  could  cross  it  most  anywhere  and  hardly  find  a  bee  upon  it. 
About  a  quarter  of  a  mile  south  of  the  campus  there  were  some  quite 
extensive  fields  of  alsike  clover  and  these  were  covered  with  bees 
flying  clearly  in  the  direction  of  the  colonies  on  the  station  farm. 

In  some  parts  of  the  State,  notably  in  the  Flathead  basin,  there 
is  a  considerable  yield  of  an  amber  colored  honey  of  a  muddy  ap- 
pearance from  sweet  clover  or  melilot.  This  clover  is  a  biennial 
and  grows  to  the  height  of  four  or  five  feet,  blossoming  the  second 


30   '  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

year.  It  is  a  plant  which  is  easily  scattered  in  a  new  territory  and 
is  found  growing  frequently  along  railroad  tracks  where  it  is 
brought  in.  In  a  few  years  it  takes  possession  of  the  roadsides  for 
several  miles  back  from  the  railroad. 

The  lack  of  an  autumn  harvest  is  one  of  the  most  noticeable 
things  in  the  State.  There  are  many  varieties  of  golden  rod  or 
solidago  which  serve  to  keep  the  colonies  rearing  brood  but  are  not 
sufficient  to  afford  stores  for  the  winter.  There  are  some  plants 
which  may  be  cultivated  and  incidentally  increase  the  honey  produc- 
tion. Among  such  plants  may  be  cited  Wagner's  flat  pea,  vetches 
of  various  kinds  and  parsnips.  In  general  there  are  few  if  any 
plants  that  can  be  cultivated  for  the  honey  they  may  produce  unless 
they  have  some  other  value  also. 

ESSENTIALS  OF  A  GOOD  BEE  HIVE 

Nearly  everyone  is  familiar  with  the  pictures  of  the  old  conical 
bee  hives  of  straw.  These  hives  consisted  of  rings  of  straw  bound 
togeth'  :  and  shaped  up  like  the  crown  of  a  hat,  measuring  perhaps 
eighteen  to  twenty  inches  in  diameter,  and  a  little  more  in  height. 
At  one  point  on  the  edge  a  piece  was  removed  for  an  entrance,  and 
then  the  whole  inverted  on  a  board.  Rowed  out  in  this  fashion  simi- 
lar hives  can  be  seen  today  in  some  parts  of  Germany  and  Austria. 
When  one  wished  to  remove  the  honey  a  bit  of  sulphur  paper  was 
burned  in  the  entrance,  killing  the  bees^j  then  the  combs  of  honey 
v/ere  removed.  This  method  in  these  days  would  be  exceedingly 
wasteful  and  very  primitive.  With  the  advance  of  apiculture,  sul- 
phuring is  being  relegated  to  the  upper  shelf  and  bees  have  increased 
greatly  in  value.  In  America  the  old  box  hive,  on  the  same  princi- 
pal, was  in  vogue  until  the  middle  of  the  last  century.  These  pion- 
eer hives  measured  about  fifteen  inches  square  and  usually  stood 
about  thirty  inches  high.  As  in  the  old  straw  hives,  the  entrance 
was  formed  by  a  notch  in  the  edge  of  the  hive  which  was  then  in- 
verted on  a  bottom  board,  the  latter  projecting  and  forming  the 
alighting  board.  To  facilitate  attachment  of  combs,  a  couple  of 
sticks  were  sometimes  crossed  in  the  box  near  the  top,  upon  which 
the  bees  could  cluster  for  comb  building. 

The  hive  now  commonly  used  in  Germany,  Northern  Austria, 

nan  Switzerland,  Italy  and  Hungary  is  the  one  improved  by  the 

.baron  von  Berlepsch  and  known  by  his  name.     This  hive  is  arranged 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  31 

to  open  by  a  door  at  the  rear.  The  frames,  made  in  varying  dimen- 
sions, on  the  average  perhaps  twelve  inches  long  by  nine  deep,  are 
suspended  from  the  top  bars  in  tiers  of  a  dozen  or  fifteen  deep. 
These  are  sometimes  three  deep  and  the  frames  are  removed  by 
pliers.  One  advantage  that  this  hive  can  have  is  that  the  brood 
^combs  below  are  at  once  available  without  removing  the  upper 
combs  filled  with  honey.  The  slowness  of  the  operation,  however, 
and  the  trouble  in  seeking  out  a  queen,  more  than  outweighs,  this 
slight  advantage. 

In  southern  Austria  where  frame  hives  have  not  found  a  very 
ready  acceptance,  another  hive  is  in  vogue.  This  style  has  evolved 
from  the  custom  of  the  beekeepers  of  migrating  with  their  bees  dur 
ing  the  buckwheat  honey  harvest,  this  grain  being  grown  as  a  staple 
crop  in  the  larger  valleys.  The  hives  are  not  fitted  with  movable 
frames  and  the  bees  are  allowed  to  build  as  they  please.  They 
measure  about  six  inches  high,  twelve  inches  wide  and  thirty  inches 
deep.  The  front  is  usually  removable  and  the  bottom  is  loosely  at- 
tached. These  flat  hives  can  be  loaded  in  numbers  on  a  wagon  in 
a  very  satisfactory' way  and  are  also  adapted  to  being  shipped  by 
rail.  They  are  tiered  up  with  a  roof  over  them  thus  protecting  each 
other  from  inclement  weather.  The  peasants  are  fond  of  depicting 
various  scenes  upon  the  fronts  of  their  hives ;  Bible  scenes  having 
a  prominent  preference.  One  can  trace  sometimes  the  course  of 
Biblical  history  in  one  of  these  old  apiaries  by,  the  portrayal  of  well 
selected  events. 

In  England,  France  and  French  Switzerland  the  movable  frame 
hive,  invented  and  perfected  in  America,  is  in  common  use.  This 
invention,  which  revolutionized  modern  bee  keeping,  came  out  about 
the  middle  of  the  last  century  and  was  given  to  the  beekeeping  world 
by  Rev.  L.  L.  Langstroth.  The  distinctive  feature  of  Mr.  Lang- 
stroth's  hive  is  the  movable  frame.  In  brief,  the  hive  consists  of  a 
box  somewhat  longer  than  broad  and  still  sh-allower,  arranged  so 
that  a  series  of  frames  can  be  suspended  in  it  running  lengthwise, 
ten  or  twelve  in  number,  the  projecting  ends  of  the  top  bars,  resting 
on  a  rabbet  on  each  end  piece  of  the  hive  body.  The  final  dimension 
of  these  frames,  as  settled  upon  by  Mr.  Langstroth  is  17  5-8  inches  in 
length,  by  9  1-8  inches  in  depth,  outside  measurements.  This  frame 
has  been  universally  adopted  as  the  standard  size.  There  are  many 
honey  producers  who  use  a  deeper  frame  with  marked  success,  yet 


32  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

nearly  all  the  factories  now  turn  out  the  standard  size  and  bees  in 
the  market  are  usually  discounted  if  in  odd  sized  hives. 

The  Langstroth  frame  is  usually  made  with  the  top  bar  one 
inch  in  width  and  7-8  of  an  inch  in  thickness,  to  support  the  weight 
of  the  honey  laden  comb  without  sagging.  The  side  bars  may  be  a 
little  narrower  and  of  1-4  inch  strips.  The  bottom  bars  are  usually 
much  narrower — even  down  to  1-4  inch  square — so  that  the  frames 
can  be  removed  without  crushing  or  rolling  bees  against  the  ad- 
joining combs.  The  top  bars  as  now  manufactured  are  made  with  a 
double  slot  on  the  lower  side  and  each  frame  is  provided  with  a 
triangular  wedge  so  that  the  comb  foundation  can  be  wedged  in. 
securely.  This  simple  method  of  fitting  in  foundation  will  be  dis- 
cussed more  in  detail  later. 

There  have  been  various  devices  tried  for  spacing  the  indi- 
vidual frames.  One  widely  used  style  is  that  known  as  the  Hoff- 
man self-spacing  end  bar.  The  end  bars  are  made  somewhat  wider 
.at  the  top  so  that  they  project  beyond  the  top  bar,  and  coming  in 
touch  with  those  of  the  adjoining  frame,  form  a  bee  space  of  3-8 
of  an  inch,  the  space  allowed  everywhere  where  bees  must  pass. 
The  objection  to  this  frame  is  that  the  bees  so  propolize  and  build 
1»race  combs  over  them  that  they  are  very  hard  to  break  apart,  and, 
when  once  apart,  they  have  to  be  scraped  before  they  will  fit  to- 
gether again.  They  form  bad  places  to  crush  bees  when  one  is 
working  hurriedly.  Staple  spacers  have  also  been  used.  For  the 
amateur  some  form  of  spacing  is  not  a  bad  plan  but  soon  one  ac- 
quires the  ability  to  place  frames  with  the  correct  interval,  and 
manipulation  is  much  easier  with  no  means  of  self  spacing. 

The  ends  of  the  hives  are  rabbeted  so  that  the  frames  will  have 
support.  This  in  most  instances,  is  made  deeper  than  necessary  to 
admit  the  top  bar  and  still  give  the  bee  space  and  then  a  tin  rabbet 
in  inserted  to  minimize  the  effects  of  propolizing  by  the  bees. 

The  hive  bodies  are  cut  to  take  eight,  ten  or  twelve  frames. 
Lock  joints  or  halved  joints  nailed  from  each  direction  make  a  solid 
hive  and  are  especially  necessary  if  the  bottom  board  is  movable, 
as  is  the  case  with  the  common  hives  now  in  use.  Where  bees  are 
AV  intered  out  of  doors  in  this  climate,  some  protection  is  necessary 
to  retain  the  heat  generated  by  the  bees.  This  can  be  supplied  by 
1  aving  a  double-walled  hive,  with  the  space  filled  with  chaff,  straw, 
or  paper,  or  ground  cork,  giving  a  few  inches  of  dry  absorbent  ma- 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING. 


PLATE  III. 


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PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING 

terial  all  around  the  bees."  In  hives  of  this  style  it  is  better  to  have 
the  bottoms  permanently  fast  with  packing  on  the  bottom  as  well  as 
on  the  sides.  If  single  walled  hives  are  used,  winter  cases  may  be 
set  over  them  and  packed  as  before.  The  matter  of  winter  hives 
will  receive  fuller  discussion  in  the  section  on  wintering. 

Above  this  lower  story,  designed  chiefly  for  the  brood  rearing 
apartment  of  the  colony  and  hereafter  spoken  of  as  the  brood 
chamber,  comes  some  sort  of  a  structure  for  the  storing  of  surplus 
honey.  This  may  be  another  story  similar  to  the  lower  one,  when 
one  wishes  to  secure  extracted  honey,  or  a  half  depth  story,  taking 
frames  of  just  half  the  Langstroth  depth,  with  thinner  top  bars. 
These  are  usually  spoken  of  as  top  stories  and  may  be  tiered  up  to 
the  number  of  three  or  four  if  the  colony  is  strong  enough.  What 
is  known  as  a  super  proper  is  a  half  depth  story,  fitted  up  with 
holders  to  the  number  of  six,  for  an  eight  frame  hive,  or  seven  for  a 
ten  frame  hive,  each  arranged  to  take  four  and  sometimes,  in  the 
case  of  the  deeper  supers,  five  sections.  Above  the  super  or  above 
the  frames,  when  the  super  is  not  on,  a  sheet  of  enameled  carriage 
cloth  or  oil-cloth,  if  placed  with  the  glazed  side  down,  will  prevent 
the  bees  from  sticking  the  cover  down  and,  in  the  case  of  the  super, 
will  help  to  keep  the  sections  clean. 

The  cover  serves  its  purpose  best  if  made  with  a  gable,  so  that 
it  will  shed  the  water  easily.  Then  is  it  easy  to  arrange  for  ven- 
tilation by  having  an  auger  hole  in  each  gable  end  covered  with 
wire  cloth  preferably.  It  is  much  more  satisfactory  to  have  a  flat 
board  surface  down  on  the  quilt  so  that,  if  the  gable  is  boarded  up, 
with  auger  holes  in  these  boards  covered  with  wire  cloth,  or  left 
with  cracks  between  the  boards  narrow  ^enough  to  exclude  the  bees, 
a  good  system  of  ventilation  can  be  had.  Flat  covers  have  been 
extensively  used  but  this  necessitates  tipping  the  hives  forward  and 
also  cuts  off  top  ventilation.  In  the  hottest  weather  the  covers  can 
be  propped  up  and  so  increase  the  ventilation. 

There  are  various  styles  of  bottom  boards,  but  the  essential 
feature  is  to  have  a  wide  alighting  board.  It  is  well  if,  in  addition 
to  this,  an  additional  board  be  provided  and  placed  on  an  angle  and 
reaching  to  the  ground,  so  that  the  heavy  laden  and  tired  bees,  as 
they  drop  down,  will  have  no  trouble  to  crawl  up  and  into  the  hive. 
There  should  be  some  way  of  contracting  the  entrance  so  that,  after 
the  honey  flow  is  over,  the  opening  may  be  made  smaller  to  guard 


34  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

against  robbing,  or  late  in  the  fall,  when  cold  nights  begin  to  come 
on,  it  is  well  to  close  up  a  portion  of  the  entrance  to  keep  out  the 
cold  air.  This  may  be  accomplished  by  a  couple  of  blocks  which 
can  be  adjusted  or  by  one  piece  with  a  smaller  entrance  or  arch- 
way cut  in  it. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  essential  features  of  a  hive  are  very 
simple.  With  a  simple  hive  manipulation  is  greatly  enhanced,  and 
in  every  way  it  is  better  to  have  as  few  contrivances  about  a  hive 
as  possible.  There  have  been  various  plans  to  include  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  hive  a  feeder,  but  no  good  device  has  been 
put  in  the  field.  Feeding  is  usually  either  accomplished  from  above, 
in  an  empty  story,  or  at  the  entrance.  It  pays  to  nail  hives  well, 
and  paint  them  well  with  a  good  grade  of  white  lead.  The  covers 
may  be  even  put  together  with  white  lead  to  insure  tightness. 

TECHNIQUE   OF    HANDLING   BEES. 

The  art  of  handling  bees  cannot  be  learned  out  of  books.  The 
successful  beemaster  is  only  such  by  dint  of  the  hard  knocks  in  the 
school  of  experience.  Yet  there  are  a  few  points  which,  if  kept  in 
mind,  will  greatly  lessen  the  number  of  mistakes  and  their  con- 
sequences. 


Fig  7 — The  Bingham  Bee  Smoker. 

An  essential  implement  in  the  handling  of  bees  is  a  good  bee 
smoker.  There  are  several  makes  in  the  market.  There  seems  to 
be  none,  however,  which  greatly  excells  the  Bingham  for  all  practi- 
cal purposes.  The  mistake  of  getting  too  small  a  size  is  a  common 
one,  which  results  in  trouble  to  light  and  keep  a  fire  going.  About 
a  three  inch  barrel  is  the  most  convenient  size.  A  fire  may  be 
lighted  by  twisting  small  bunches  of  excelsior  into  compact  and 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  35 

slender  rolls  and  feeding  them  in  gradually,  lighting  the  first  one 
before  putting  it  in  and  keeping  the  bellows  going  lightly.  When 
the  smoker  is  warmed  up,  hard  wood,  split,  may  be  added  and  later 
larger  pieces  until  a  good  fire  is  started.  Afterwards  wood  and 
excelsior  may  be  added  from  time  to  time..  Hard  maple,  well  sea- 
soned, or  dead  apple  wood  are  the  best  fuel,  as  these  woods  do  not 
gum  up  the  smoker  as  do  some  others. 

The  beginner  may  find  at  first,  until  confidence  is  gained,  that 
a  bee  veil  will  be  a  very  desirable  investment.  Indeed  there  are 
few  apiaries  about  which,  at  certain  times,  a  veil  will  not  be  needed. 
A  very  durable  one  can  be  made  from  black  cotton  tule,  with  about 
eight  or  ten  inches  square  of  silk  tule  for  the  front,  to  better  permit 
sight.  The  usual  style  is  made  open  at  top  and  bottom.  The  top 
is  then  gathered  and  a  rubber  band  inserted,  so  that  it  will  fit  tightly 
ever  the  crown  of  preferably  a  broad  brimmed  hat.  The  lower  edge 


Fig.   8.— The  globe   bee  veil. 

then  can  be  tucked  in  the  neck  or  folded  under  one's  coat.  The 
brim  of  the  hat  will  hold  the  veil  away  from  the  face.  There  is 
offered  for  sale  what  is  known  as  the  globe  bee  veil,  the  essential 
feature  of  which  is  a  pliable  frame  work  skeleton  which  holds  the 
veiling  from  the  head  at  all  points.  It  is  somewhat  inconvenient 
on  account  of  the  added  weight.  Rubber  gloves  can  be  worn  but 
on  the  whole  they  are  a  useless  article  and  are  soon  discarded  even 
by  the  amateur. 

A  small  sized  putty  knife  or  an  old  case  knife,  for  scraping 
purposes,  and  a  screw  driver  for  prying  the  frames  apart,  together 
with  a  feather  plucked  from  the  left  wing  of  a  turkey  and  used  for 
brushing  the  bees  from  the  combs,  equip  one  for  opening  a  hive.  It 


36  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

is  well  to  have  a  shallow  tray  or  basket  in  which  to  carry  these 
tools,  some  fuel,  a  couple  of  cans,  one  for  propolis  and  the  other 
for  bits  of  wax,  pencil  and  record  cards,  queen  introducing  cages, 
etc.,  at  hand. 

Passing  to  the  windward  side  of  a  hive,  with  the  smoker  going 
well,  the  cover  may  be  removed  and  stood  down  against  the  adjoin- 
ing hive.  Then  pealing  up  one  corner  of  the  quilt,  drive  in  just 
enough  smoke  to  start  the  bees  down.  One  should  always  be  careful 
about  placing  anything,  or  standing,  in  front  of  the  hive,  as  this 
obstructs  the  way  and  confuses  the  incoming  bees  and  also  prevents 
any  bees  that  fly  from  the  top  from  getting  in  again.  For  this  same 
reason  the  practice  of  first  blowing  smoke  in  the  entrance  is  not  to 
be  advised,  though  sometimes  it  becomes  necessary.  The  smoker 
can  be  stood  down  to  windward  so  that  as  the  smoke  rises  it  will  be 
carried  across  the  top  of  the  hive  keeping  the  bees  down.  Smoke 
is  used  to  alarm  the  bees  and  set  them  feeding  on  honey.  When 
filled  with  honey  they  become  noticeably  docile  and  can  be  handled 
with  much  greater  ease  and  comfort. 

Usually  there  will  be  more  or  less  propolis  on  the  top  of  the 
frames  which  may  now  be  removed  while  the  bees  are  filling  them- 
selves. Also  there  are  quite  likely  to  be  brace  combs  built  between 
the  frames  if  the  bees  are  gathering  honey  freely,  and  these  may  be 
cut  out.  In  loosening  the  frames  care  should  be  taken  not  to  jar 
the  hive  any  more  than  necessary.  In  removing  the  first  frame  one 
must  work  slowly  and  with  care  lest  bees  be  crushed  and  the  an- 
ger of  the  colony  aroused.  In  the  eight  frame  hives  there  is  room 
for  what  is  known  as  a  division  board,  the  use  of  which  is  to  give 
room  to  manipulate  the  frames  upon  its  removal.  In  a  good  many 
instances,  unless  the  bees  are  worked  with  quite  frequently,  the 
division  board  becomes  so  fastened  that  it  is  harder  to  remove  than 
one  of  the  frames.  In  the  larger  sized  hives  provision  is  not  made 
for  it. 

One  of  the  disadvantages  of  the  self-spacing  frames  is  that  no 
working  space  can  be  had  by  shoving  the  frames  together.  One 
frame,  having  been  removed  and  stood  on  end  at  one  side  of  the 
hive,  the  others  may  be  manipulated  with  ease. 

There  are  four  positions  found  to  be  of  practical  value  when 
once  learned,  to  facilitate  the  handling  of  frames  of  bees  and  honey. 
The  first  position  is  that  in  which  the  frame  is  in  the  hands  when 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  37 

first  removed  from  the  hive,  with  one  hand  at  each  end,  the  frame 
suspended  vertically.  In  this  position,  which  may  be  designated  for 
convenience  as  number  one,  the  near  side  of  the  comb  can  be  ob- 
served. Raise  the  left  hand  until  the  frame  is  brought  to  a  verti- 
cal position  in  the  long  way  and  take  position  two.  Then  whirl 
the  frame  around  to  the  right  until  the  far  side  is  brought  into  view, 
keeping  the  combs  vertical  the  whole  time,  and  position  number 
three  is  assumed.  Then  lower  the  left  hand  until  the  frame  is  again 
in  its  normal  position,  only  inverted,  and  we  have  the  opposite 
side  before  us.  This  is  number  four.  In  returning  the  frame 
positions  are  gone  through  in  the  reverse  sequence.  It  will  be  <g 
served  that  the  comb  is  kept  vertical  the  whole  time.  The  adva^ 
tage  of  this  is  obvious.  Freshly  gathered  honey  is  kept  from  drip- 
ping and  newly  built  combs  are  kept  from  dropping  out,  as  is  likely 
to  take  place  if  the  comb  is  allowed  to  come  into  a  horizontal 
position. 

If  one  is  desirous  of  locating  the  queen  it  is  obvious  that  the 
bees  should  be  as  little  excited  as  possible.  If  the  proper  care  be 
taken  to  secure  these  conditions  a  queen  may  be  often  found  so  un- 
disturbed as  to  be  quietly  moving  about  the  comb  depositing  eggs. 
The  queen  will  be,  under  normal  conditions,  toward  the  center  of  the 
brood  nest.  She  will  not  be  found,  as  a  rule,  on  frames  of  sealed 
brood  or  even  on  combs  filled  with  larvae  of  an  advanced  stage, 
so  that  these  may  be  passed  by  quickly.  In  general,  it  is  best  to  take 
a  quick  look  through  a  hive  before  spending,  much  time  looking 
each  comb  over  systematically.  When  one  is  removing  combs,  as 
they  are  drawn  out,  sometimes  a  little  excitement  will  be  noticed  on 
the  comb  in  hand  or  the  adjoining  comb,  signifying  that  the  queen 
has  been  disturbed.  It  is  upon  combs  containing  eggs  that  the 
queen  is  most  likely  to  be  found.  If  the  queen  is  a  very  old  one, 
she  will  be  sometimes  found  hovering  about  on  the  drone  comb 
\vhere  her  instinct  leads  her  to  deposit  drone  eggs,  in  view  of  the 
coming  young  queens.  If  she  happens  to  be  a  young,  unmated  or 
virgin  queen,  it  is  almost  useless  to  hunt  for  her  because  of  her  ac- 
tivity and  similarity  to  the  workers,  in  fact  one  has  no  clue  as  to  her 
whereabouts  since  she  is  depositing  no  eggs. 

In  the  course  of  opening  colonies  of  bees  and  working  with  them 
it  is  often  of  advantage  to  change  combs  about,  remove  some,  insert- 
ing others  or  sheets  of  foundation  prepared  ready  for  reception  by 


38  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

the  bees.  It  will  be  remembered  that,  under  natural  conditions, 
the  brood  is  centrally  located,  and  to  the  front  with  scattering,  cells 
cf  pollen  above  and  to  the  rear,  followed  by  honey.  The  outside 
combs  are  nearly  always  given  up  to  pollen  in  large  quantities  and 
to  honey.  In  shifting  combs  in  a  colony  care  should  be  taken  not 
to  insert  combs  of  this  character  from  the  outside  into  the  middle  of 
the  brood  nest,  as  this  only  divides  the  latter,  and  the  bees  will 
not  move  the  pollen  or  sealed  honey,  even  to  $ive  place  for  the 
queen  to  lay.  The  honey  may  be  gotten  rid  of  by  first  extracting, 
but  the  pollen  still  remains.  Such  combs  of  necessity  must  be  kept 
for  outside  combs.  Drone  combs  are  also  undesirable  in  the  brood 
nest  as  they  lead  to  the  production  of  a  large  and  super-abundant 
number  of  these  fellows,  which,  not  only  take  a  great  deal  of  the 
strength  of  the  colony,  in  the  shape  of  care  during  their  development, 
but,  after  being  matured,  are  only  so  many  extra  and  useless  idlers 
to  feed.  In  actual  practice  we  try  to  expunge  all  drone  combs  from 
the  brooder  chamber.  In  any  event,  a  patch  of  drone  combs  half 
as  big  as  one's  hand  placed  near  the  outside  of  the  brood  chamber 
will  insure  the  rearing  of  all  the  drones  necessary  to  fertilize  virgin 
queens,  for  it  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  a  queen  mates  but  once  for 
life.  It  is  also  desirable  to  have  only  smooth,  even  combs,  so  that 
large  patches  of  brood  will  be  reared,  for  in  broken  combs  the 
brood  is  patchy  and  much  space  is  lost.  Drone  combs  and  uneven 
broken  combs  may,  therefore,  be  gradually  culled  out  and  relegated 
to  the  top  story  and  used  for  extracted  honey.  In  removing  such 
combs  it  is  often  hard  to  know  just  what  to  do  with  them,  as  they 
may  have  brood  in  them.  If  they  be  removed  when  placing  a  top 
story  on  they  may  then  be  simply  set  up,  bees  and  all  making  sure 
that  the  queen  is  not  on  them.  If  the  combs  are  to  be  removed  en- 
tirely or  placed  in  another  hive  the  bees  will  have  to  be  removed. 
This  is  accomplished  by  shaking,  first  taking  the  precaution  to  give 
the  bees  a  whiff  of  the  smoke.  There  are  two  ways  of  shaking.  The 
comb  may  be  raised  from  its  position  in  trre  hive  only  far  enough 
to  clasp  the  hand  vertically  under  the  projecting  ends  of  the  top 
bar,  and  resting  the  hand  on  the  edge  of  the  hive,  the  comb  may 
be  shaken  with  a  jarring  motion  by  raising  the  hands  slightly  and 
returning  them  with  force  on  the  edge  of  the  hives.  The  other  way 
is  to  remove  the  comb  entirely  from  its  place,  and  holding  it  by 
the  projecting  ends  of  the  top  bar^  raise  it  slowly  until  the  bees 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  39 

are  braced  on  the  combs  against  the  rising  movement,  then  lower  the 
comb  with  a  quick  jerk  and  the  bees  will  fall  to  the  hive.  This 
repeated  several  times  will  serve  to  get  most  of  the  bees  off.  The 
former  mode  of  shaking  is  perhaps  more  desirable  when  there  are 
young  bees  on  the  combs  in  any  number,  as  these  bees  will  then 
be  shaken  into  the  hive  and  not  onto  the  ground  as  might  be  the 
case  if  the  latter  plan  were  followed.  The  latter  plan  is  much  more 
convenient  and  when  the  bees  are  old  enough  to  fly,  is  entirely  satis- 
factory. In  either  case  the  few  bees  remaining  on  the  combs  to- 
gether with  those  that  may  re-alight  may  be  removed  by  brushing 
them  lightly  either  with  a  light  brush  made  for  the  purpose  or  with 
a  wing  feather  taken  from  a  turkey  or  similar  bird.  This  feather 
should  be  taken  from  the  left  wing  as  before  noted,  as  this  gives  the 
curve  in  the  right  direction  and  the  wide  feather  portion  in  con- 
tact with  the  comb  for  brushing  when  operated  in  the  right  hand. 

But  to  return  to  the  matter  of  manipulation  of  the  combs  of  the 
brood  chamber,  in  order  to  increase  the  brood  area.  To  ac- 
complish this  successful^  it  takes  judgment  and  experience.  Tu 
general  combs  filled  with  brood, — i.  e.  eggs  and  young  larvae, — may 
be  moved  toward  the  outside.  Care  should  be  taken,  however,  in 
a  weak  colony  not  to  spread  unsealed  brood  too  much,  especially 
early  in  the  spring  during  cool  weather.  The  combs  with  sealed 
or  emerging  brood  may  be  placed  next  and  then  in  or  near  the  cen- 
ter, empty  combs  inserted  for  the  queen  to  fill  with  eggs.  The  in- 
sertion of  an  empty  comb  in  this  way  is  a  good  plan  to  follow  if  one 
finds  trouble,  for  any  reason,  in  locating  a  queen.  The  next  day  the 
queen  is  almost  sure  to  be  caught  on  the  inserted  comb. 

In  inserting  frames  of  full  sheet  comb  foundation  they  should  be 
placed  between  full  combs  so  that  there  will  not  be  too  much  vacant 
space  in  the  center  of  the  hive,  as  this  may  divide  the  brood  nest. 
Again,  if  the  starters  only  are  used,  i.  e.  narrow  strips  of  foundation 
in  the  frames,  placing  the  inserted. frames  thus,  is  more  likely  to  in- 
sure getting  straight  and  even  combs.  As  a  rule,  it  is  best,  however, 
to  use  full  sheets  of  foundation  and  wire  the  frames  as  described 
in  the  section  on  Starting  an  Apiary.  Starters  may  be  used  in 
second  swarms  or  in  colonies  where  there  are  young  queens,  as 
where  there  is  an  old  queen  there  is  a  great  tendency  for  the  bees 
from  instinct  to  build  drone  comb  for  the  same  reason  that  an  old 
queen  is  found  laying  drone  eggs.  In  a  very  strong  colony,  when 


40  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

the  queen  is  pressed  for  room,  and  the  bees  are  not  inclined  to 
swarm,  good  worker  combs  may  be  built  on  starters  even  where 
an  old  queen  is  in  the  colony.  By  an  old  queen  we  mean  any 
queen  not  of  the  current  year's  raising. 

STARTING  AN  APIARY 

In  bee  keeping,  as  in  other  enterprises,  a  good  beginning  con- 
tributes much  to  the  ultimate  success  of  the  enterprise.  For  those 
who  are  inexperienced,  this  is  doubly  true.  For  the  beginner,  the 
spring  of  the  year  may  be  the  best  time  to  make  the  venture  with 
bees.  In  our  rigorous  climate  the  matter  of  wintering  bees  is  one 
which  requires  some  little  knowledge  of  bees,  preferably  at  first 
hand.  Thus,  by  starting  in  the  spring,  the  beginner  has  the  whole 
season  before  him  and  by  fall  has  gained  confidence  and  knows  his 
little  fellow  laborers  better  and  can  better  plan  and  provide  for 
bringing  them  through  the  long  and  severe  winter  months.  It  is 
strongly  to  be  recommended  that  for  the  beginner,  the  bees,  if 
available,  be  of  a  gentle  variety, — Carniolans  or  Italians,  or  possibly 
Caucasians,  though  the  latter,  being  a  newly  imported  variety,  are 
not  generally  available.  A  good  colony  in  the  early  spring  should 
have  a  cluster  covering  at  least  six  combs,  and  should  have  three  or 
four  frames  of  brood  in  various  stages.  There  should  be  a  supply  of 
several  pounds  of  honey,  as,  at  this  critical  time,  when  there  is  much 
brood  to  be  fed,  and  many  hungry  young  bees  emerging  every  day, 
honey  is  consumed  rapidly  and  until  the  flow  from  early  flowers 
equals  the  demand,  the  colony  must  depend  upon  its  stores  from  the 
preceding  year.  The  queen  should  be  not  older  than  from  the  pre- 
ceding year's  raising,  though  in  the  case  of  choice  queens,  a  queen 
two  and  even  three  years  of  age  may  be  retained.  When  thus  kept 
ir  would  be  chiefly  for  breeding  purposes.  For  reasons  given  pre- 
viously, it  is  advisable  to  begin  with  a  definite  sized  frame,  and  the 
Langstroth  frame  is  now  the  generally  accepted  standard,  except 
in  certain  restricted  localities.  Colonies  having  reasonably  straight 
and  even  combs  are  to  be  preferred,  as  they  are  much  easier  of  ma- 
nipulation. 

Having  selected  our  stock,  the  next  point  is  a  suitable  location 
for  the  apiary.  Before  starting  an  extensive  apiary  it  would  be  well 
to  look  into  the  surrounding  honey  conditions,  if  honey  production 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  41 

is  aimed  at ;  or  if  queen  rearing  is  to  receive  the  main  emphasis,  it 
would  be  well  to  look  up  the  bees  of  the  locality  and  determine 
whether  they  would  interfere  with  securing  pure  matings.  The 
matter  of  bee  diseases,  while  important  in  some  states,  is  not  at  all 
to  be  feared  in  this  state.  It  is  well  for  the  beginner  to  start 
modestly,  with  only  one  or  two,  or  at  the  most,  three  or  four  hives, 
until  a  knowledge  of  the  handling  of  bees  is  acquired.  A  few 
colonies  will  keep  one  quite  busy  learning,  and  if  mistakes  are  made 
they  are  not  of  serious  import  financially.  After  one  has  learned  the 
management  of  a  small  apiary  it  can  be  readily  increased  or  added 
to  until  the  number  desired  is  reached.  One  person  devoting  all 
of  his  time,  with  proper  facilities,  can  easily  care  for  from  one 
hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  colonies.  With  the 
latter  number  help  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year  might  be  needed. 

In  general  a  southern  or  southeastern  exposure,  on  a  gentle 
slope,  is  the  best  location  for  the  colonies.  A  wind  brake  on  the 
north  and  the  west,  in  the  nature  of  a  building,  high  board  fence  or 
hedge,  is  an  added  advantage.  A  grass  plot  is  good  if  the  grass  be 
kept  cut,  particularly  in  front  of  the  hives,  so  that  the  bees  are  not 
hindered  in  their  flight.  The  colonies  should  be  placed  several 
inches  off  the  ground,  on  bricks  or  stones,  or  blocks  of  wood.  The 
hives  should  stand  level  from  side  to  side,  but  may  slant  a  little  to 
the  front  toward  the  entrance,  to  shed  the  water  from  the  entrance. 
It  is  much  more  convenient  if  the  hives  be  placed  five  or  six  feet 
apart,  so  that  they  can  be  easily  worked  without  interfering  with 
the  adjoining  colonies.  They  may  be  placed  in  rows  breaking 
joints  with  each  other  and  all  facing  in  the  same  direction ;  or,  as 
some  do,  they  may  be  placed  every  two  rows  facing  each  other,  giv- 
ing an  aisle  or  passage  way  through  at  the  backs  of  the  colonies. 
If  quite  a  number  of  colonies  are  to  be  kept  they  should  not  be 
separated  too  much,  as  this  entails  too  much  lost  labor  and  time 
in  getting  about  and  carrying  honey  laden  combs.  For  this  same 
reason  the  apiary  should  be  placed  as  close  as  convenient  to  the 
room  or  building  designed  for  use  as  a  shop  and  honey  house. 
Such  a  room,  though  not  necessary  for  a  few  colonies,  is  a  very 
desirable  thing  to  have  if  available. 

Having  selected  the  site,  the  moving  of  the  bees  may  be  con- 
sidered here.  It  may  be  that  the  frames  in  the  hive  will  need  wedg- 
ing preparatory  to  being  moved  to  prevent  the  combs  from  shifting 


42  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

and  crushing  bees  and  perhaps  breaking.  The  bees  will  have  to  be 
closed  up  at  night,  or  early  in  the  morning  before  they  begin  to 
fly.  Over  the  top  of  the  hive  it  is  often  well,  if  the  hive  is  to  go 
a  considerable  distance  and  the  weather  is  warm,  to  tack  a  sheet  of 
wire  cloth,  removing  the  cover  temporarily.  It  may  be  even  neces- 
sary in  the  case  of  very  strong  colonies,  to  take  the  added  precau- 
tion of  giving  extra  space  above  the  frames  in  which  the  bees  may 
cluster.  This  may  be  accomplished  by  placing  an  empty  super 
above,  placing  the  wire  cloth  above  that.  The  entrance  should  also 
be  covered  with  wire  cloth  for  ventilation.  If  the  hive  has  a  mova- 
ble bottom  it  will  be  necessary  to  make  this  secure.  For  this,  crat- 
ing staples  are  the  most  handy,  though  blocks  of  wood  may  be  used. 
These  fastenings  would  be  suitable  for  securing  the  super  where 
used  as  described  above. 

The  hives  thus  prepared  may  be  shipped  by  express.  If  to  be 
removed  by  wagon,  a  spring  wagon  should  be  used,  with  straw  or 
hay  in  the  bottom.  The  hives  should  be  placed  with  the  combs  run- 
ning with  the  axle  as  then  the  force  of  .  the  jolts  does 
not  strike  the  comb  sideways,  but  on  the  edges  in  such 
a  way  that  they  can  stand  it  better.  It  is  better  to  move 
bees  at  night  or  early  morning,  so  that  they  will  be  as  cool  as 
possible.  Arriving  at  the  new  location  of  the  apiary,  the  hives  may 
le  placed  in  position  on  the  stands  and  with  a  lighted  smoker  the 
entrances  may  be  opened.  This  is  done  first  so  that  when  the  top 
packing  is  removed,  the  bees,  flying  out,  will  find  their  way  in  at  the 
entrance  without  confusion.  It  is  well,  especially  if  the  bees  have 
been  moved  only  a  short  distance,  to  slant  a  board  in  front  of  the 
entrance,  so  that  they,  on  flying  out  the  next  morning,  will  have  their 
attention  called  to  the  change  in  location  and  take  notice  of  their 
new  and  strange  surroundings.  Otherwise  they  are  liable  to  dart 
off  from  the  hive  as  usual,  and  when  ready  to  return  home,  will 
naturally  go  back  to  the  old  location  and  be  lost.  In  a  couple  of 
days  these  boards  may  be  removed  and  normal  conditions  restored. 

Should  the  bees  be  purchased  in  the  old  style  box  hive,  still 
commonly  used  among  farmers,  it  might  be  desirable  to  transfer 
them  into  frame  hives.  This,  however,  should  never  be  undertaken 
late  in  the  fall,  as  the  bees  would  not  have  time  to  recover  from  th^ 
disturbed  condition  of  their  house  before  winter.  These  operations 
should  take  place  in  the  spring  or  early  summer. 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  43 

One  word  about  preparing  box  hives  for  moving.  They 
should  be  inverted,  the  bottom  being  movable,  and  wire  cloth  or 
cheese  cloth  tacked  over  the  whole  bottom.  If  there  are  any  other 
openings  these  may  be  covered  with  wire  cloth. 

The  box  hive  to  be  transferred  is  inverted  and  all  openings  or 
crevices  except  at  the  bottom  now  become  the  top  closed.  The 
frame  hive  or  simply  a  box  may  then  be  placed  over  the  open  bottom 
and  all  openings  boarded  up.  Then,  by  a  light,  rapid  and  contin- 
uous drumming,  with  a  stick  on  the  box  hive,  at  first  close  to  the 
ground  and  gradually  higher,  the  bees  may  be  driven  into  the  box 
or  hive  on  top.  A  little  smoke  blown  in  from  the  bottom  close  to 
the  ground  will  serve  to  start  the  bees  along  a  little  more  rapidly 
Too  much  smoke  must  not  be  given  as  this  will  only  confuse  the 
bees  and  perhaps  even  start  them  running  back.  In  a  short  time  the 
bees  will  have  started  as  may  be  known  by  their  loud  buzzing. 
When  they  are  all  up,  the  hive  or  box  may  be  removed  and  placed 
clown  upon  the  stand  removing  the  box  hive  to  a  tent  or  closed  room. 

Here,  away  from  any  possible  interference  from  robber  bees, 
one  may  cut  out  the  combs  and  fit  them  into  frames.  This  should 
be  done  without  much  delay,  as  the  brood  should  be  restored  to  the 
warmth  of  the  colony  as  soon  as  the  change  can  be  accomplished. 
To  hold  the  combs  in  place,  which  should,  of  course,  be  fitted  into 
the  frames  in  their  normal  position,  thin  strips  of  wood  may  be 
used.  Two  of  these  strips  notched  at  the  ends,  may  be  wired  to- 
gether at  one  end  with  space  enough  between  to  admit  the  frame 
and  then  after  the  insertion  of  the  frame,  with  the  comb  in  position, 
they  may  be  wired  above,  and  so  a  support  for  the  comb  is  provided 
until  the  bees  can  fasten  the  combs  in,  which  will  be  accomplished 
in  the  course  of  a  very  few  days  when  the  sticks  may  be  removed. 
The  sticks  may  be  cut  a  little  longer  than  the  height  of  the  frames 
and  then  placed  in  a  slanting  position,  so  that  patched  combs  can 
be  held  in  more  efficiently.  Two  or  three  of  these  pairs  of  sticks 
may  be  necessary  in  order  to  hold  the  comb  in  place  properly.  Care 
should  be  taken  in  cutting  the  comb  to  have  it  fit  close  to  the  top- 
bar  and  when  fiitted  in,  it  should  fill  the  frame  so  that  it  will  be 
held  closely  fitting  to  the  top-bar,  and  then  the  bees  will  secure  it 
well  and  much  quicker. 

Another  way  of  temporarily  securing  the  combs  and  especially 
serviceable  in  the  case  of  small  pieces,  is  to  use  long,  slender  wire 


44  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

nails.  These  may  be  pushed  into  the  pieces  of  comb  at  intervals 
through  holes  made  in  the  end  or  bottom  bars.  The  nails  may  be 
removed  afterwards  or  left  in  at  will.  Frames  of  comb,  thus  made 
up  are  patchy  at  best  and  after  once  having  served  their  purpose 
they  should  be  removed  to  the  top  story  as  extracting  combs  and 
gradually  culled  out  for  the  wax  extractor,  and  new  combs  built 
on  foundation  supplied  to  take  their  places  in  the  brood  chamber. 

These  frames  of  foundation  are  prepared  in  the  following  man- 
ner :  The  frames  are  placed  upon  a  board  arranged  with  another 
board  above  just  the  size  of  the  inner  dimensions  of  the  frame,  so 
that  the  frame  will  just  fit  down  over  it.  This  board  should  be  just 
as  thick  as  half  the  width  of  the  end  bars  of  the  frame.  If  the  frames 
?re  Hoffman  self  spacers,  it  will  be  necessary  to  slot  the  lower  board 
to  let  the  frame  down  flat,  giving  a  place  for  the  extra  widened 
portion  of  the  end  bar. 

With  the  frame  in  position  four  awl  holes  may  be  bored  in 
each  end  at  regular  intervals,  the  first  about  an  inch  from  the  top 
bar  and  the  last  about  the  same  distance  from  the  bottom  bar.  These 
holes  should  be  centered  on  the  end  bars.  If,  when  the  hives  are 
purchased,  the  frames  be  ordered  ready  for  wiring,  they  will  come 
already  pierced  and  a  spool  of  wire  included  without  extra  charge. 
With  the  frame  still  on  the  form  a  tack  may  be  placed  near  the  top 
hole  and  one  near  the  bottom  hole.  Then  weaving  the  wire  through, 
having  placed  the  spool  so  it  will  revolve  upon  a  peg  or  spike  in 
the  bench,  the  end  of  the  wire  may  be  secured  around  the  lower 
tack  and  the  tack  driven  in.  Then  the  wire  can  be  stretched  up  and, 
finally,  by  twisting  the  spool,  be  brought  taught,  the  form  prevent- 
ing the  frame  from  being  pulled  out  of  true.  Then,  after  fastening 
the  wire  about  the  upper  tack  and  driving  this  tack  in,  the  wire  may 
be  twisted  off  and  the  frame  removed  ready  for  the  foundation. 

For  fastening  in  the  foundation,  there  are  several  styles  of  top 
bars.  One  formerly  used  was  a  bar  with  a  single  groove  down  the 
center.  The  foundation  was  inserted  in  the  groove  and  then  melted 
wax  poured  down  it  and  allowed  to  cool.  Another  way  was  to 
have  a  beveled  top  bar  in  which  the  foundation  was  secured  by  be- 
ing pressed  into  the  wood  by  rubbing  with  the  handle  of  a  case 
knife  wet  so  that  the  wax  would  not  adhere  to  it.  Care  should  be 
taken  in  this  method  not  to  wet  the  top  bar,  as  the  wax  will  not 
adhere  to  a  wet  surface.  Still  another  form  is  that  of  a  hollowed 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  45 

tongue,  similar  to  a  hollow  ground  razor  but  broad  at  the  base. 
Then  the  foundation  is  slit  along  one  side  to  the  depth  of  three- 
eights  of  an  inch  to  half  an  inch  at  intervals  of  two  or  three 
inches  and  these  pieces  bent  alternately  up  and  down.  Then  plac- 
ing the  foundation  in  position  in  the  frame  the  bent  pieces  will 
straddle  the  tongue  and,  by  means  of  a  dampened  roller,  the  bent 
edges  are  rolled  into  the  hollowed  sides  of  the  tongue,  thus  secur- 
ing the  sheet  quite  firmly  in  position. 

A  still  commoner  way  and  perhaps  the  quickest  and  easiest 
way,  is  to  have  a  double  groove  in  the  top  bar,  one  centrally  located 
to  receive  the  foundation  and  the  other  closely  cut  on  one  side  of 
it.  Then,  by  introducing  a  strip  wedge  triangularly  shaped  in  cross 
section  into  the  second  groove  and  pressing  it  home  the  sheet  of 
foundation  is  held  quite  firmly  to  the  top  bar. 

The  foundation  having  been  secured  along  the  top  in  one  of 
these  ways,  the  frame  is  returned  to  the  form  with  the  foundation 
en  the  underside  of  the  wires.  Then  by  running  a  spur  wire  em- 
bedder  along  the  wires  they  are  embedded  in  the  wax  and  so  form 
the  desired  support.  Care  must  be  exercised  lest  the  foundation 
be  cut  by  bearing  too  heavily  upon  the  embedder.  There  are  other 
forms  of  embedders  and  other  methods  of  embedding.  Where  a 
large  number  of  frames  are  to  be  prepared,  for  about  five  dollars 
an  electric  embedder,  fitted  up  with  batteries,  can  be  purchased 
which  works  much  more  rapidly.  But  for  the  novice  the  first 
method  with  the  spur  embedder  serves  all  practical  purposes. 

For  fastening  foundations  into  the  sections  in  the  supers  fitted 
up  for  the  production  of  comb  honey  diflerent  implements  are  used. 
The  sections  come  commonly  in  one  piece  and  are  made  of  basswood 
so  that  they  can  be  easily  folded  along  transverse  grooves  into  "box 


Fig.  9. — Spur  wire  embedder. 

form  and  then  fastened  together  by  lock  joints  where  the  two  ends 
meet.     To  fix  this  last  joint  and  square  the  boxes  up,  what  is  known 


46  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

as  a  section  former  is  used,  the  essential  feature  of  which  is  a  form 
v/hich  can  be  brought  firmly  about  the  section  by  means  of  pres- 
sure. The  sections  thus  prepared  are  ready  for  the  foundation. 
The  foundation  used  is  of  a  much  lighter  grade  than  that  used  in 
the  brood  frames,  so  as  to  have  as  little  midrib  as  possible  in  the 
comb  honey,  and  comes  in  sheets  half  as  wide  and  just  long  enough 
to  be  cut  into  four  sheets  the  right  size  to  go  into  the  sections.  For 
cutting  foundation  nothing  is  better  than  a  slightly  warmed  or 
dampened  thin  case  knife,  though  a  thin  roller  knife  is  sometimes 
used.  The  sheets  thus  cut  may  be  fitted  in  one  of  two  ways, — by 
means  of  what  is  known  as  the  Parker  foundation-  fastener  or  by 
means  of  the  Daisy  fastener.  The  former  works  on  the  principal 
of  pressing  the  foundation  into  the  wood.  The  section  is  placed 
upside  down  upon  the  edge  of  the  fastener  which  is  made  secure 
by  screwing  to  a  board  or  to  the  bench.  The  foundation  is  then 
laid  flat  upon  the  top  piece  of  the  section  with  the  edge  just  a  little 
beyond  the  middle  of  the  section.  Then  by  a  biting  motion  the 
edge  of  the  foundation  is  pressed  into  the  wood  and  upon  removing 
the  section,  the  sheet  is  pressed  into  a  vertical  position  and  the 
section  placed  in  the  right  position  in  the  section  holder  in  the 
super.  The  Daisy  fastener  is  a  little  more  complicated  but  works 
much  faster  and  gives  better  satisfaction.  It  consists  of  a  plate 
ot  metal  which  is  heated  by  means  of  a  lamp.  The  section  is  in- 
verted and  the  foundation  is  held  in  position  in  the  section  but  a 
little  up  from  the  top  piece.  By  a  pressing  motion  of  the  fastener 


Fig.  10. — The  Porter  spring  bee  escape. 

which  is  leaned  against  the  bench,  the  heated  plate  is  brought  in 
contact  with  the  edge  of  the  foundation.  In  an  instant  the  wax 
is  melted  and  the  plate  allowed  to  fly  back  so  that  the  sheet  of 
foundation  can  be  slipped  down  upon  the  section  and  allowed  to 
cool.  Care  must  be  taken  not  to  overheat  the  foundation  or  let  the 
section  get  heated.  The  section  may  then  be  removed  and  placed 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING 


47 


right  side  up  in  the  super,  the  foundation  becoming  firmly  fixed  in 
a  moment. 

To  remove  the  bees  from  the  supers  when  the  latter  are  rilled 
with  honey,  a  handy  device  known  as  the  Porter  bee  escape  has  been 
provided.  It  consists  of  two  springs  so  adjusted  as  to  permit  a  bee 
to  squeeze  out  but  not  to  return, — operating  in  effect  like  a  rat 
trap.  This  little  tin  device  is  fitted  in  the  center  of  a  honey  ooard 
the  size  of  the  top  of  the  hive  and  then  slipped  under  the  super  the 
night  before  it  is  desired  to  remove  the  honey.  Care  should  be  taken 
not  to  smoke  the  bees  much  when  removing  comb  honey  as  this 
alarms  them  and  they  bite  into  the  white  cappings  and  so  cause 
the  sections  to  run  and  drip  afterwards.  By  morning  the  greater 


Fig.  11.— A  rotary  honey  extractor. 

part  of  the  bees  will  be  out  and  the  sections  can  be  easily  taken 
away  in  the  best  of  condition.  The  super  should  not  be  allowed 
to  remain  long  on  the  hive  after  the  bees  have  left  it,  if  the  weather 
is  at  all  warm,  as  there  is  no  ventilation  after  the  bees  are  gone  and 
the  combs  are  likely  to  melt  down  and  cause  the  honey  to  run.  This 
same  device  may  be  used  also  with  top  stories  but  usually  it  goes 
much  faster  to  brush  the  bees  with  full  frames  and  it  does  not  mat- 
ter if  the  cappings  are  injured  in  this  case.  To  keep  the  bees  from 
returning  to  the  combs  as  they  are  taken  from  the  hive,  the  combs 
may  be  placed  in  what  is  known  as  a  comb  bucket.  This  bucket 
is  made  of  tin  with  a  cover  and  arranged  to  carry  four  or  five  combs 


48  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

and  is  handy  to  carry  combs  to  and  from  the  extracting  room. 

Where  one  intends  to  keep  ten  or  more  hives  of  bees  it  is  ad- 
vantageous, unless  a  special  preference  is  held  for  honey  in  the 
comb,  to  procure  an  extracting  outfit  and  install  it  in  the  room  de- 
signed for  use  as  a  honey  room.  The  principal  piece  in  the  outfit 
is  an  extractor.  This  consists  of  a  can  twenty  to  thirty  inches  in 
diameter  and  the  height  of  an  ordinary  table,  fitted  with  a  faucet 
at  the  convex  bottom  which  causes  the  honey  to  drain  out  through 
the  faucet.  Mounted  on  a  pivot  in  the  center  of  the  bottom  and 
connected  with  a  crank  at  the  top  is  a  comb  basket  holding  from 
two  to  six  Langstroth  combs  and  capable  of  being  revolved  rapidly 
by  means  of  a  crank.  The  modern  extractors  are  arranged  with 
reversible  comb  baskets  so  that  the  honey  can  be  thrown  from  both 
sides  without  removing  the  combs  from  the  extractor.  For  the 
small  apiary  the  Cowan  reversible  extractor,  holding  two  combs, 
is  a  convenient  and  popular  size.  The  extractor  should  be  stood 
upon  a  box  or  low  bench  high  enough  to  permit  the  honey  to  be 
drawn  off  below.  As  the  honey  will  have  particles  of  wax  in  it, 
a  thin  cheese  cloth  sack,  should  be  provided  to  tie  over  the  faucet 
and  strain  the  t  honey  through.  This  cloth  should  be  wet  before 
tying  on,  as  otherwise  the  honey  is  slow  to  pass  through.  A  cover 
of  similar  cloth  or  heavier  to  fasten  down  over  the  top  of  the  ex- 
tractor prevents  dust  from  settling  in  the  extractor  when  not  in 
use. 

There  are  several  styles  of  honey  or  uncapping  knives  used  to 
remove  the  cappings,  prepatory  to  placing  the  combs  in  the  extrac- 


Figure  12.— The  Quinby  uncapping  knife. 

tor.  They  are  designed  along  general  principals.  The  first,  of 
which,  the  Bingham  knife  is  an  example,  is  a  narrow  thin  blade, 
capable  of  being  bent,  with  the  tip  curved  up  and  the  handle  elevat- 
ed so  that  the  blade  can  be  brought  parallel  to  the  combs,  the  idea 
being  to  be  able  to  reach  all  the  little  indentations  of  the  comb.  The 
second  type  is  heavier,  broad,  and  with  a  pointed  tip  at  a  greater  or 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING. 


PLATE  IV. 


Roughly  constructed  storm  shed  for  winter  protection  of  bees, 
plate  V.     (Photograph  by  R.  A.  Cooley.) 


See 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING. 


PLATE  V. 


Hives  in  place  for  winter  ready  for  boards  and  straw  to  be  placed 
across  the  front.     (Photograph  by  R.  A.  Cooley.) 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  49 

less  angle.  Here  the  idea  is  to  make  the  comb  conform  to  the  knife 
by  shaving  all  down  to  the  lowest  level.  An  example  of  this  style 
is  the  Quinby  knife.  They  both  have  their  advantages,  but  for  rapid 
work,  the  Quinby  seems  to  serve  better,  although  there  is  in  its  use 
the  disadvantage  of  having  a  good  deal  of  honey  in  the  cappings. 
To  hold  these  cappings  and  permit  them  to  drain,  some  sort  of  an 
uncapping  can  must  be  provided.  Where  only  a  few  hives  are  kept 
a  milk  strainer  over  a  tin  pail  answers  the  purpose.  Where  more 
bees  are  kept,  what  is  known  as  a  Dadant  uncapping  can  is  a  good 
investment.  This  consists  of  two  parts.  The  lower  portion  is 
simply  a  can  with  a  faucet  in  it  to  drain  the  honey  off.  The  upper 
portion  is  another  can  but  with  a  heavy  wire  cloth  bottom  to  allow 
the  honey  to  drain  into  the  can  below.  To  support  tbe  weight  of 
the  cappings  a  post  is  set  in  the  center  of  the  lower  can.  Across 
the  top  of  the  upper  can  is  placed  a  wooden  frame  in  which  there  is 
a  pivot  where  the  comb  can  be  rested  and  turned  as  the  cappings 
are  being  removed.  This  also  provides  a  place  where  the  cappings 
can  be  scraped  from  the  knife  without  danger  of  dulling  the  latter. 
After  the  cappings  have  drained  long  enough  or  until  they  cease  to 
drip  which  would  be  several  days  or  longer,  they  may  be  dumped 
into  a  pail  or  tub  and  washed,  scrubbing  the  wax  with  the  hands. 
Warm  water,  not  hot  enough  to  melt  the  wax,  will  dissolve  off  the 
thick  honey  better.  Then  the  water  can  be  drained  off  and  utilized 


Fig.  13. — The  Bingham  uncapping  knife. 

in  the  production  of  vinegar.  As  a  simple  test  to  see  if  it  is  of  the 
right  constituency,  an  egg  may  be  floated  in  it,  honey  or  water  being 
added  until  the  egg  just  floats.  The  proportion  of  honey  for  vinegar 
should  be  one  pound  of  honey  to  a  gallon  of  soft  water,  preferablv 
rain  water.  A  vinegar  barrel  may  be  used  filling  it  not  more  than 
two-thirds  full  and  giving  plenty  access  of  air  by  placing  it  on  its 
side  in  the  sun  and  opening  the  side  and  end  bungs,  covering  the 
openings  with  fine  wire  gauze  to  prevent  the  entrance  of  gnats. 
To  hurry  along  the  process  of  fermentation  some  mother  of  vinegar 
may  be  added  or  a  gallon  of  previously  made  honey  vinegar  or 


50  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

good  cider  vinegar  if  the  other  is  not  to  be  had.  Honey  vinegar  Is 
rather  slow  in  working  but  of  excellent  quality,  being  a  clear,  almost 
white  color  and  sells  well  in  the  warket. 

The  cappings,  after  they  are  again  drained,  together  with  any 
other  accumulations  of  bits  of  comb,  may  be  rendered  into  wax. 
One  of  the  most  inexpensive  devices  for  the  rendering  of  comb  into 
wax  is  the  Doolittle  solar  wax  extractor.  This  consists  of  a  wooden 
box  usually  longer  than  broad,  arranged  with  legs  near  one  end  so 
that  it  can  be  raised  up  at  an  angle  toward  the  sun.  The  interior 
is  fitted  up  with  a  concave  tin  lining  to  hold  the  bits  of  comb  separ- 
ated by  a  wire  cloth  straining  screen  from  the  wax  pan  at  the  lower 
end  of  the  box.  The  box  is  fitted  with  a  double  glass  cover  which 
concentrates  tbe  heat  of  the  sun.  Over  this,  when  not  in  use,  comes 
a  wooden  top  covered  with  tin  to  protect  the  glass  and  keep  out 
rain.  It  is  best  to  remove  the  cake  of  wax  after  the  first  cooling, 
even  though  it  be  a  small  one,  as  each  additional  heating  darkens 
the  wax.  Where  there  is  a  sufficient  quantity  of  comb  to  be  render- 


Fig.  14. — Solar  wax  extractor. 

ed  it  is  well  to  sort  it  out  putting  all  the  light  pieces  separate  so 
that  the  light  wax  from  these  pieces  may  be  kept  separate.  The 
cocoons  and  other  impurities  left  in  the  extractor  when  melting  up 
old  combs  may  be  removed  to  a  box  with  a  paddle  and  form  excellent 
material  for  starting  fires. 

There   are   several   types   of   steam    extractors.     The    essential 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING 


51 


features  of  these  are  a  boiler  for  water,  above  which  is  placed  a 
can  containing  a  basket  made  of  perforated  zinc  or  heavy  galvanized 
wire  cloth  to  hold  the  comb.  In  the  better  forms  within  this  basket 
is  arranged  a  press  so  that  the  rendering  of  the  combs  into  wax 
is  greatly  facilitated  by  pressure.  Rendering  comb  by  steam  is  a 
much  quicker  process  and  where  a  large  amount  of  wax  is  to  be 
thus  prepared  it  pays. 

While  the  average  person  keeping  bees  will  usually  buy  his 
comb  foundation  already  made,  yet  he  may  be  interested  in  know- 
ing something  of  the  process.  The  thin  sheets  of  wax  are  prepared 
by  dipping.  For  this  purpose  a  good  sized  tank  is  prepared  with 
heated  wax  in  it.  Dipping  boards  of  about  three-eights  inch  stuff 


Fig  15 — The  Daisy  foundation  fastener. 

with  the  edges  pointed  and  of  the  width  of  the  sheets  desired  are 
first  dipped  into  cold  water  nearby,  then  dipped  into  the  melted 
wax.  Tto  prevent  too  much  water  adhering  to  the  board  it  may 
be  wiped  by  a  sponge  when  once  well  soaked.  After  cooling  a 
moment  the  sheets  of  wax  may  be  stripped  off,  running  the  thumb 
nail  along  the  sharpened  edges  to  start  the  sheet.  These  sheets 
are  then  allowed  to  stand  in  a  cellar  for  some  days.  Then  after  dip- 
ping in  tepid  water  the  sheets  are  run  through  the  foundation  mill. 
This  mill  consists  of  double  rollers  bearing  the  impression  of  the 
bottoms  of  the  cells  and  operated  by  a  crank  much  like  a  washing 
wringer.  To  prevent  the  wax  from  adhering  to  the  rollers  they  are 
lubricated  by  soap  suds  or  starch.  Flour  paste  is  a  simple  and  hand- 


52  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT  STATION 

ily  applied  lubricant.  The  sheets  may  have  a  tendency  to  stick  to 
one  of  the  rollers.  To  prevent  rolling  back,  the  edge  must  be  start- 
ed and  to  prevent  tearing,  a  clamp  should  be  used  pulling  on  the  sheet 
across  its  whole  width.  The  sheets  may  then  be  trimmed  and  be- 
fore storing  away  should  preferably  have  thin-  tissue  paper  placed 
between  them  to  prevent  sticking. 

It  will  be  seen  that  where  any  number  of  colonies  are  kept,  to 
house  the  various  implements  and  to  store  empty  hives  and  surplus 
combs,  som*  sort  of  a  shop  is  desirable,  and  preferably  a  honey 
room  also,  In  storing  away  combs  it  is  essential  that  they  be  plac- 
ed where  mice  cannot  get  at  them,  as  mice  are  very  fond  of  honey. 
Also  proximity  to  ants  is  a  nuisance.  The  greatest  enemy  to 
combs  are  the  larvae  of  the  wax  moth.  There  are  two  species  of 
moths  which  lay  Jheir  eggs  about  bee  hives  and  combs.  They  are 
of  a  dull  gray  color  one  a  little  larger  than  the  other,  and  should 
be  destroyed  when  found  about  the  hivres.  The  larvae  feed  upon  the 
wax  and  spin  their  cocoons  out  of  wood  fibre  on  the  edge  of  frames 
or  in  the  crevices  of  the  hives.  Fortunately  this  pest  is  rarely  if 
ever  found  in  this  state,  and  precaution  should  be  taken  not  to  in- 
troduce it  with  shipments  of  bees.  Should  combs  become  infested 
or  be  liable  of  infection,  they  may  be  fumigated  with  bi-sulphide  of 
carbon.  This  may  be  done  by  tiering  up  the  stories  filled  with 
combs  and  then  placing  the  chemical  in  a  can  in  an  empty  story 
at  th'e  top,  when  the  fumes  will  settle  down  and  destroy  all  the 
larvae  if  there  be  any.  After  this  the  combs  may  be  stored  safely 
away  until  spring  when  they  should  be  put  under  the  protection  of 
the  bees  as  soon  as  possible.  No  fire  should  be  used  about  bi-sul- 
phide of  carbon  as  it  is  very  inflammable  and  mildly  explosive. 


MODES  OF  WINTERING 

Since  much  that  is  to  follow  in  regard  to  the  spring  and  sum- 
mer manipulation  and  management  of  bees,  is  based  upon  the  as- 
sumption of  successful  passage  of  the  winter,  we  will  hasten  to  dis- 
cuss this — one  of  the  most  important  problems  in  our  state,  and 
one  which  has  received  careful  attention  for  several  winters  past  in 
the  experimental  work  of  the  Station.  The  results  presented  in 
these  succeeding  pages  were  obtained  from  or  verified  by  experi- 
ments conducted  during  the  winters  of  1901-02,  02-03,  03-04,  and 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  53 

04-05.  To  facilitate  these  experiments  and  the  general  work  of  the 
apiary  a  clapboard,  one  story  building  was  erected  on  the  Station 
farm  just  east  of  the  poultry  buildings.  This  bee  house  contains 
three  rooms,  one  for  a  shop  fitted  up  with  a  work  bench  and  the 
necessary  tools,  a  second  for  a  honey  room,  containing  the  ex- 
tractor, uncapping  can,  honey  tank  and  tubs,  together  with  scales 
and  table  and  all  the  necessary  things  for  canning  and  labeling  the 
honey. 

At  the  back  side  of  the  building,  and  running  the  length  of  it, 
is  a  *oom  with  a  dirt  floor  fitted  up  with  two  skeleton  shelves  of 
two-by-fours  so  that  some  forty  or  fifty  colonies  of  bees  may  be 
wintered  under  as  nearly  normal  conditions  as  possible  with  the  en- 
trances connected  with  the  outside,  permitting  the  bees  to  fly  at  will. 
Above  these  rooms  in  the  gable  roof,  is  ample  storage  room  for 
empty  hives  and  for  surplus  combs  when  not  in  use  for  the  honey 
harvest. 

During  the  first  two  winters  prior  to  the  erection  of  this  bee 
house,  experiments  were  carried  on  in  outdoor  wintering  and  in 
packing  a  number  of  colonies  in  straw  under  one  roof.  The  ex- 
periments during  the  last  two  years  were  not  only  modified  by  the 
indoor  wintering  with  packing  only  above  the  colonies  but  also  by 
packing  colonies  in  straw  in  an  open  shed  against  the  side  of  the 
house.  (See  the  accompanying  figures.) 

Tests  were  also  made  of  the  wintering  qualities  of  Carniolans, 
Italians,  Cyprians,  Cyprio-Carniolans  and  Caucasio-Carniolans. 
The  queens  of  these  races  and  crosses  were  obtained  through  the 
courtesy  of  the  agricultural  workers  of  the  bureau  of  Entomology, 
at  Washington.  The  various  qualities  of  these  varieties  of  bees 
have  been  discussed  in  full  in  earlier  ages.  The  Carniolans  seem 
to  hold  the  lead  as  winterers,  though  the  marvelous  powers  of  the 
Cyprians  and  their  crosses  to  build  up  in  the  spring  quite  in  contrast 
to  the  Italians,  make  them  worthy  of  notice  in  this  connection,  as 
good  winterers  for  this  if  for  no  other  reasons. 

The  methods  of  handling  bees  in  Montana,  as  in  some  other 
localities,  in  the  late  summer  and  foil,  has  a  good  deal  to  do  with 
their  successful  wintering.  This  is  particularly  true  in  the  Gallatin 
Valley,  where  there  is  no  autumn  yield  of  honey.  By  no  yield 
we  do  not  mean  that  absolutely  no  honey  is  gathered  but  that  there 
is  no  harvest  beyond  what  is  needed  by  the  bees.  We  observed  that 


54  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

after  about  the  tenth  to  the  fifteenth  of  August  there  is  no  chance 
of  securing  surplus  honey.  If  the  top  stories  be  left  on  the  bees 
may  store  in  them,  but  this  is  very  detrimental  as  then  the  honey 
is  scattered  and  not  compactly  stored  as  it  should  be  in  the  brood 
chamber.  So  that  after  the  last  extraction,  about  the  tenth  of 
August,  the  combs  should  be  returned  only  for  a  day  or  two  until 
the  bees  have  cleaned  them  up,  when  the  stories  should  be  removed 
and  packed  away  for  the  winter.  In  the  case  of  supers  the  same 
rule  applies.  In  fact,  there  is.  no  use  in  putting  on  empty  supers 
after  the  last  of  July,  except  perhaps  in  an  unusually  good  year. 

The  bees  will  then  continue  to  work  for  about  two  months, 
gathering  enough  in  that  time  to  keep  the  queen  laying  and  so  keep 
up  the  strength  of  the  colony  and  leave  them  strong  enough  for 
the  winter.  Most  colonies  unless  exceptionally  weak  will  storo 
enough  honey  for  their  winter  supply.  If  there  are  any  weak  colonies 
when  finally  examined  before  winter,  they  should  at  this  time  be 
strengthened  up  with  brood  from  the  exceptionally  strong  colonies 
or  else  united- with  other  weak  colonies.  In  this  climate  where  the 
winters  are  long  and  severe  it  is  particularly  desirable  that  weak 
colonies  be  doubled  up  since  if  left  separate  they  are  almost  sure 
to  perish  before  spring.  The  two  or  three  colonies  to  be  united,  if 
near  each  other,  should  be  brought  gradually  side  by  side  moving 
them  a  little  each  day.  All  but  one  should  be  made  queenless, 
selecting  to  be  preserved  the  best  queen,  or,  if  there  is  no  difference, 
retaining  the  one  in  the  largest  of  the  colonies  to  be  united.  Then 
after  these  preliminaries,  when  the  colonies  have  had  time  to  real- 
ize their  queenless  condition,  which  will  perhaps  be  a  day  or  so, 
just  at  dusk  the  combs  of  bees  may  be  set  over  into  the  hive  selected 
to  hold  the  new  colony.  Before  doing  this  the  queen  with  a  few 
bees  should  be  confined  in  a  wire-cloth  cage,  commonly  used  for 
introducing  queens  and  described  in  detail  in  the  section  on  queen 
rearing.  After  the  bees  are  all  in  together  it  is  well  to  smoke  them 

-•uglily.  Some  beekeeers  practice  sprinkling  a  little  sugar 
syrup  over  the  bees,  just  enough  to  feed  them  well,  but  not  enough 

••lib  them  seriously.  It  is  often  well  to  feed  them  a  little,  and 
ir.  all  cases  it  should  be  seen  that  enough  honey  is  in  the  colony 
to  keep  them"  through  the  winter. 

There  are  various  forms  of  feeders  mainly  of  two  types, — one 
the  bees,  come  directly  in  contact  with  the  vessel  of  syrup 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  55 

or  honey,  and  the  other  where  the  bees  suck  the  food  indirectly. 
There  are,  further,  two  ways  of  feeding  bees, — at  the  entrance  and 
from  above.  Where  one  has  but  a  hive  or  two  to  feed,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  invest  in  any  elaborate  apparatus.  A  salmon  can 
with  a  bit  of  comb  or  a  chip  in  the  syrup  to  serve  as  a  float  may  be 
--placed  in  an  empty  story  or  super  above  the  brood  chamber,  turning 
one  corner  of  the  quilt  back  so  that  the  bees  may  reach  the  syrup. 
Feeding  should  always  be  done  at  night  so  that  there  will  be  no 
chance  of  robbing  among  the  bees.  If  the  nights  are  chilly  a  piece 
of  sacking  or  quilting  may  be  placed  over  the  feeder  in  order  to 
retain  the  heat  of  the  colony,  first  placing  a  block  across  the  can 
to  prevent  the  covering  from  closing  the  can.  The  syrup  should 
be  slightly  warmed  when  fed  to '  the  bees,  as  they  will  carry  it 
down  more  readily.  It  is  prepared  by  melting  one  pound  of  cane 
sugar  to  a  quart  of  water.  A  little  vinegar  may  be  added  to  prevent 
granulation.  It  is  found  that  on  the  whole  bees  winter  better  if 
their  stores  are  not  granulated. 

If  the  colony  needs  considerable  feeding,  it  is  better  to  feed 
it  in  larger  quantities,  since  feeding  in  small  quantities  stimulates 
by  a  sense  of  continuing  supply  of  food,  to  the  rearing  of  brood 
which  is  undesirable  in  the  late  fall.  Early  in  the  fall  it  is  well  to 
feed  slowly  as  it  is  highly  desirable  to  have  plenty  of  young  vigor- 
ous bees  for  the  winter.  This  is  the  plan  of  feeding  adopoted  during 
the  spring  months  where  feeding  for  stimulation  is  followed.  In  this 
climate  each  colony  should  have  not  less  than  thirty  to  forty  pounds 
of  honey  or  syrup.  Bees  may  winter  on  less  but  the  honey-filled 
combs  are  an  added  protection  to  the  clusters,  as  the  heat  is  thereby 
retained  more  readily.  Thus  it  is  advisable  to  feed  by  the  quart  or 
even  two  quarts  at  a  time. 

A  convenient  feeder  can  be  made  by  removing  the  porcelain 
from  the  top  of  a  mason  jar  and  punching  the  latter  full  of  holes 
with  an  awl  or  a  wire  nail.  Then,  screwing  the  cap  thus  perfor- 
ated tightly  upon  the  jar  of  tepid  syrup  and  inverting  the  latter 
quickly  upon  a  stand  or  simply  a  couple  of  blocks  above  the  frames, 
the  bees  can  take  the  syrup  without  coming  in  contact  with  the 
large  volume  of  syrup  and  thereby  running  the  risk  of  being 
drowned.  The  bees  will  take  the  syrup  from  the  holes  as  fast  as  it 
flows  if  the  holes  are  not  too  large  and  they  will  manage  it  even 
if  it  drips,  if  the  jar  be  placed  near  enough  level  to  prevent  its 


56  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT    STATION 

running  too  fast.  These  same  feeders  may  be  used  at  the  entrance 
by  having  an  enclosed  passage  about  the  opening  of  the  jar  leading 
into  the  entrance.  The  plan  of  feeding  at  the  entrance  is  not  sc 
good  if  the  nights  are  cold. 

It  is  needless  to  say,  that  in  preparing  bees  for  the  winter  one 
should  be  sure  to  have  in  each  colony  a  good  prolific  queen,  prefer- 
ably of  the  current  year's  raising.  This  is  necessary  to  insure 
that  brood  rearing  will  begin  at  the  proper  time  in  the  spring  there- 
by replacing  the  old  bees  which  die  off  rapidly  at  that  season. 

With  these  matters  attended  to,  the  next  essential  is  to  nave  a 
\varm,  dry  and  quiet  place  in  which  the  bees  may  pass  the  winter. 
It  has  been  our  experience  that  with  a  colony  that  is  strong  enough 
to  generate  sufficient  heat  the  matter  of  guarding  against  dampness 
becomes  the  all  important  matter.  If  bees  are  disturbed  during 
the  winter  months  they  move  about  generating  an  undue  amount 
cf  heat  and  at  the  same  time  a  considerable  amount  of  water  vapor 
v,  hich  condenses,  coming  in  contact  with  walls  of  the  hive,  produc- 
ing dampness.  More  than  this,  the  bees  consume  more  food  when 
moving  about  and  from  this  excessive  feeding,  diarrhoea  may  re- 
snlt,  for  normally  the  bee  retains  the  feces  in  its  body  until  buch 
weather  conies  as  will  permit  it  to  fly  out  of  the  hive  and  cast  it 
out.  In  the  case  of  diarrhetic  bees  the  best  remedy  is  a  cleansing 
flight  and  if  the  weather  will  permit,  bees  wintered  in  cellars  should 
K  carried  out  for  a  few  hours  flight  in  the  midddle  of  the  day,  in 
case  of  infection  with  this  malady. 

Outdoor  wintering  is  usually  accomplished  in  chaff  hives  and  one 
great  objection  is  the  expensiveness  of  these  hives.  Otherwise  since 
it  is  the  most  normal  condition  for  bees,  this  method  is  to  be  recom- 
mended for  inexperienced  beekeepers.  The  feature  of  these  chaff 
hives  is  a  double  wall  with  from  three  to  eight  inches  of  space  be- 
tween the  walls  on  all  sides  including  the  bottom,  filled  with  some 
non-conductor  of  heat  like  straw,  chaff,  paper  or  ground  cork.  The 
effect  of  this  packing  is  to  retain  the  heat  and  at  the  same  time  per- 
mit the  moisture  produced  by  the  bees  to  pass  off.  To  further  per- 
mit this  moisture  to  escape  the  oil  or  carriage  cloth  quilt  used  in 
summer  is  removed  and  a  canvas  quilt  placed  over  the  frames. 
Above  this,  newspapers,  a  piece  of  old  quilting,  or  a  chaff  tray 
be  used  to  retain  the  heat.  Then,  above  this  material  to  re- 
tain the  heat  there  should  be  an  open  space  with  free  ventilation 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  57 

accomplished  by  auger  holes  through  the  gable  ends  of  the  roof. 
The  roof  ^nd  whole  hive  should  be  thoroughly  painted,  and  the 
hive  placed  several  inches  off  the  ground  to  prevent  freezing  and 
thawing  and  the  attendant  soaking  up  of  water.  The  entrance  form- 
ed by  a  bridge  passage-way  through  the  packing  at  the  usual  place 
is  contracted  to  an  inch  or  so  for  the  winter.  There  should  be  in 
most  instances  no  trouble  in  wintering  bees  so  packed  if  they  are 
strong  in  numbers  and  with  plenty  of  stores. 

Similar  conditions  may  be  approached  with  single  walled  hives 
by  placing  winter  cases  around  them  and  packing  chaff  or  simi- 
lar material  between  the  two  walls  thus  formed.  The  disadvant- 
age of  this  is  that  the  thick  wall  of  the  inner  case  next  to  the  bees 
and  separating  the  packing  material  from  the  colony  furnishes  a 
cold  surface  for  condensation. 

In  the  chaff  hives  the  inner  case  is.  made  of  very  thin  boards 
spread  somewhat  where  joined  and  in  some  instances  bound  straw 
or  even  a  heavy  quality  of  canvass  forms  the  inner  walls.  The  idea 
is  to  bring  the  packing  in  the  closest  proximity  to  the  cluster. 
Several  single  walled  hives  packed  close  together  in  one  long  case 
with  straw  about  them  were  wintered  very  successfully  several  times 
at  the  Experimental  Station.  In  our  tests  the  percentage  of  loss 
among  colonies  wintered  outside  in  chaff  hives  was  found  not  to 
exceed  those  lost  wintered  in  straw  or  those  placed  in  the  bee 
house.  The  colonies  placed  in  the  small  winter  room  of  the  bee 
house  were  connected  with  the  outside  for  flight,  thus  establishing 
normal  conditions.  The  only  packing  they  had  was  a  tray  of  chaff 
.above  the  canvas  and  a  felt  paper  quilt  above  the  canvass  quilt.  In 
the  coldest  winter  weather  the  temperature  of  this  room  was  found 
to  be  quite  moderate,  due  to  the  heat  generated  by  so  many  colonies 
of  bees  enclosed  in  so  small  a  space. 

One  method  widely  practiced  in  the  northern  states  and  Canada 
is  to  winter  bees  in  dry  cellars.  Late  in  the  fall  before  cold  weather 
comes  on,  after  the  bees  have  been  put  in  shape  inside  and  cloth 
quilts  with  perhaps  felt  paper  quilts,  newspapers  or  chaff  trays 
placed  above,  the  colonies  are  carried  to  a  dark  cellar.  Here  the 
entrances,  temporarily  closed  while  moving,  may  be  opened  and 
plenty  of  ventilation  given  above,  the  covers  even  being  removed. 
The  temperature  of  the  cellar  should  be  kept  evenly  at  about  42 
degrees  Fahrenheit.  This  should  never  be  permitted  to  vary  more 


58  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

than  two  or  -three  degrees  at  most,  and  the  bees  should  not  be  dis- 
turbed after  once  in  place  until  spring  weather  has  opened  up. 
Great  care  must  be  taken  not  to  take  the  bees  out  too  soon  as  they 
v.'ould  naturally  be  easily  chilled  after  being  in  the  even  temper- 
ature of  the  cellar,  should  a  sudden  cold  snap  come. 

Right  here  it  may  be  noted  that  the  killing  of  bees  during 
winter  by  cold,  is  usually  accomplished  by  the  chilling  of  small  out- 
side clusters  by  successive  cold  snaps  until  the  colony  is  so  dessi- 
mated  in  numbers  that  it  cannot  withstand  an  unusually  cold  wave. 
Starvation  sometimes  occurs  when  the  cluster  of  bees  is  caught  oy 
a  sudden  cold  snap  away  from  its  stores  and,  of  course,  not  being 
able  to  move,  will  starve,  even  though  plenty  of  stores  are  in  the 
adjoining 'combs.  To  prevent  this,  some  beekeepers  cut  small  pass- 
age ways  through  the  combs  with  a  pocket  knife  or  place  a  stick 
across  the  top  of  the  frames,  over  the  cluster,  to  raise  the  quilt  up 
and  allow  the  bees  to  pass  over  the  frame  to  the  adjoining  combs. 
These  percautions  are  obviously  not  so  necessary  when  wintering 
in  the  cellar. 

To  regulate  the  temperature  of  the  cellar  water  is  sometimes 
placed  there  in  large  vessels  as  it  is  a  great  evener  of  temperature. 
Care  must  be  taken  not  to  cause  dampness  if  this  plan  is  followed, 
A  plan  to  secure  ventilation  without  changing  the  temperature 
described  by  Professor  A.  J.  Cook,  now  of  Pomona  College,  but  for 
some  years  an  experimenter  along  apicultural  lines  when  in  Michi- 
gan, seems  feasible.  Air  is  conducted  into  the  cellar  by  pipes  from 
a  distance  of  one  hundred  or  two  hundred  feet,  so  that  it  will  become 
tempered  either  with  cooler  or  warmer  air  by  the  time  it  reaches  the 
cellar.  To  establish  the  current  of  air  a  pipe,  running  up  through  the 
floor  above,  is  connected  with  the  stove  pipe  of  the  kithcen  stove, 
above  the  damper  so  as  not  to  destroy  the  draft.  Every  time  a  fire 
i?  started  a  current  of  air  is  drawn  up  and  so  an  incoming  current 
along  the  underground  pipe  is  established. 

In  the  spring  one  of  the  first  things  to  be  done  about  the  apiary 
is  to  take  a  look  at  the  stores  of  each  colony  and  at  the  same  time 
remove  from  the  bottom  board  the  accumulation  of  dead  bees  and 
knawings.  Care  must  be  taken  not  to  start  robbing,  as  the  bees  are 
inclined  to  rob  at  this  season  as  also  late  in  the  fall.  Not  much 
smoke  should  be  used  or  much  manipulating  done  very  early  in  the 
spring,  as  often  the  bees  are  incited  to  attack  and  ball  the  queen, 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING 

killing  her  in  the  excitement.  If  there  are  any  light  colonies,  they 
may  be  given  combs  from  the  heavier  ones  or  fed.  Many  beekeep- 
ers favor  the  plan  of  spring  feeding  whether  the  bees  actually  need 
the  food  for  stores  or  not,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  stimulating  them 
to  rear  brood.  Feeding  done  for  this  reason  is  only  done  once  or 
twice  a  week  during  the  spring,  until  the  bees  begin  to  gather  honey 
from  the  early  flowers  and  only  a  little  is  given  them  each  time. 

It  is  important  at  this  time  of  the  year  that  the  bees  have  plenty 
of  pollen.  If  there  are  any  pollen  combs  stored  among  the  surplus 
combs  by  accident  they  may  be  given  for  brood  rearing  purposes. 
For  this  reason  the  taking  away  from  bees  of  pollen  combs  in  the 
fr*  11,  advocated  by  some  beekeepers,  is  discouraged.  It  is  an  un- 
natural procedure  and  the  bees  themselves,  if  they  have  plenty  of 
honey,  will  not  use  the  pollen  any  more  than  just  enough  to  repair 
the  nitrogenous  wastes  of  the  body.  It  is  absolutely  necessary  that 
the  bees  should  have  plenty  of  pollen  in  the  early  months  of  the 
spring  when  active  brood  rearing  is  carried  on.  We  have  observ- 
ed bees  gathering  pollen  here  in  the  Gallatin  Valley  the  last  o? 
February,  when  brood  rearing  operations  had  begun. 

Manipulation  to  increase  the  brood  production,  as  described  in 
the  section  on  the  tehnique  of  handling  bees,  may  be  followed  as 
soon  as  the  spring  really  opens  up  and  there  is  no  danger  of  chilling 
the  cluster  or  brood  by  enlarging  the  brood  area  with  empty  combs. 
Much  of  the  skill  of  the  beekeeper  is  brought  into  play  at  this  time 
of  the  year,  when  the  bees  are  to  be  brought  through  this,  per- 
haps the  most  critical  season  of  the  year.  Building  bees  up  is  al- 
most a  science  itself,  and  will  receive  more  attention  under  the 
Production  of  Honey. 


QUEEN    REARING 

This  is  in  itself  one  of  the  important  branches  of  Apicul- 
ture. There  are  those  who  make  this  their  chief  work  and,  instead 
of  shipping  honey  to  the  market  by  the  ton,  as  some  of  the  larger 
beekeepers  do,  send  out  queens  which  number  hundreds  and  even 
thousands.  Even  the  honey  producer  finds  it  desirable  to  rear  young 
queens,  sometimes  in  large  numbers,  to  replace  old  and  failing 
queens  in  his  honey  colonies. 

The  normal  condition  of  the  colony  for  the  production  of  queen 


60  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

cells  is  of  course  prior  to  swarming  in  the  spring.  But,  if  the  proper 
conditions  be  brought  about,  there  is  no  reason  why  good  queens 
cannot  be  produced  earlier  or  later  than  this  particular  time  of  the 
year.  It  is  often  advantageous  in  the  economy  of  the  up-to-date 
apiary  to  rear  young  queens  in  large  numbers  prior  to  the  swarm- 
ing time,  for  use  in  the  artificial  swarming  or  in  the  control  of 
swarming  spoken  of  at  length  in  the  following  section,  and  for  this 
reason  we  consider  the  matter  of  rearing  queens  at  this  point  in 
our  discussion. 

The  first  preparatory  step  to  inaugurate  the  raising  of  queens 
ib  the  dequeening  of  a  good  strong  colony  which  has  an  abundant 
supply  of  emerging  bees.  In  twenty-four  to  forty-eight  hours  the 
bees  will  have  fully  realized  their  queenless  condition  and  be  well 
in  the  notion  of  starting  cells.  There  are  several  ways  of  procedure 
to  prepare  cells.  One  mode  is  to  take  a  frame  of  young  larvae  less 
than  three  days  of  age,  since  up  to  that  time,  it  will  be  recalled,  the 
larvae  have  been  fed  upon  only  the  rich  secretion  of  the  nurse  bees, 
and  strip  off  narrow  pieces  each  of  a  single  row  of  cells  in  width. 
The  cells  on  one  side  may  be  shaved  down  nearly  to  the  base,  and 
then  the  strip  with  the  cells  of  the  opposite  side  intact  secured  with 
hot  wax  to  the  top  bar  of  an  empty  frame.  One  or  two  additional 
bars  may  be  placed  in  the  frame  and  strips  fastened  to  them  in  a 
similar  manner.  Then  with  a  blunt  sliver  or  match  stick,  two  out 
of  every  three  larvae  may  be  destroyed.  This  will  give  room  for 
the  bees  to  build  down  the  queen  cells  without  joining  them  to 
each  other.  Two  or  three  frames  so  prepared  or  even  four  may  be 
given  to  the  queenless  colony.  At  the  time  they  are  inserted,  all 
unsealed  brood  should  be  removed  and  frames  of  emerging  bees 
inserted,  if  available.  It  will  be  seen  that  all  the  nurse  bees  will 
then  be  able  to  give  their  whole  attention  to  feeding  and  caring  for 
the  prospective  queens  and  that  the  numbers  of  emerging  bees  will 
reenforce  and  swell  the  numbers  and  efficiency  of  the  nurses,  the 
result  being  that  a  large  amount  of  royal  jelly  will  be  allotted  to 
the  queen  larvae.  To  increase  this  secretion  and  also  the  secre- 
tion of  wax  with  which  to  build  down  the  cells  and  to  ease  the 
queenless  condition  of  the  colony  generally,  the  bees  may  be  stimu- 
Inted  by  liberal  feeding  each  day.  In  this  way  large  well  shaped 
cells  with  well  fed  larvae  will  be  obtained. 

Another  method  employed  by  some  is  to  use  a  series  of  queen 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  .          61 

cell  cups  collected  from  combs,  fastening  them  to  th£  bars  of  the 
frame  prepared  for  the  purpose  as  above.  Then,  to  each  cup  a 
bit  of  jelly,  secured  from  the  unsealed  cells  started  by  the  colony 
after  being  made  queenless  and  prior  to  the  removing  of  the  unseal- 
ed brood,  is  allotted.  Then,  by  means  of  a  sliver  or  toothpick  bent 
at  the  end,  or  by  the  use  of  a  little  metal  ladel,  especially  prepared 
for  the  purpose  the  young  larvae  are  transferred  f rorni  the  comb  con- 
taining the  brood  from  which  it  is  desired  to  rear  the  young  queens, 
to  these  cups.  Some  beekeepers  prefer  to  go  a  step  further  and  use 
artificially  made  cells  prepared  by  dipping,  and  encased  in  wood 
or  other  materials  such  as  fine  wire  gauze,  each  being  provided 
with  a  point  like  that  of  a  tack,  for  attachment  to  the  bars.  The 
transferring  process  is  the  same  in  the  use  of  these.  The  advantage 
in  the  use  of  such  cups  is  the  ease  with  which  they  may  be  re- 
moved and  distributed  when  they  reach  the  proper  stage  of  develop- 
ment. 

There  are  beekeepers  who  .prefer  to  rear  queens  under  what 
they  believe  to  be  more  nearly  normal  conditions,  that  is,  those  con- 
ditions which  prevail  when  the  cells  are  produced  prior  to  swarm- 
ing. This  school  of  beekeepers  believe  that  cells  reared  in  a  queen- 
less  colony  are  liable  to  be  hurried  along  by  the  bees  anxious  for  a 
queen,  and  so  do  not  receive  the  proper  care  and  attention.  So  they 
place  the  frames  prepared  in  one  or  the  other  of  the  ways  above 
indicated,  into  the  top  story  of  a  good  strong  colony,  having  pre- 
viously seen  that  the  queen  is  in  the  lower  story  and  having  in- 
serted between  the  two  stories  a  zinc  honey  board  or  queen  ex- 
cluder. The  latter  is  a  sheet  of  zine  the  size  of  the  top  of  the  hive 
perforated  with  passages  just  large  enough  to  let  the  worker  bees 
through,  but  not  of  a  size  to  permit  of  the  passage  of  the  queen. 
This  excluder  is  such  as  to  keep  the  queen  from  the  top  story  when 
extracted  honey  is  being  produced.  The  colony  then  goes  along 
in  its  normal  condition  and  a  fine  quality  of  queen  cells  is  produced 
above. 

Another  method  used  by  some,  on  the  same  principle,  is  to 
partition  off  the  central  portion  of  the  brood  chamber  with  queen 
excluder  zinc  and  placing  the  previously  prepared  frame  of  cells  in 
this  central  apartment,  allow  the  queen  to  follow  her  usual  duties 
of  egg  laying  on  both  sides  changing  her  from  one  side  to  the  other, 
to  furnish  her  empty  cells  in  which  to  deposit  eggs.  In  this  way  the 


62  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

warmth  and  attention  of  the  center  of  the  brood  nest  is  given  the 
queen  cells  while  the  queen  is  kept  from  destroying  them  as  she 
would  be  liable  to  do  unless  under  the  swarming  impulse. 

It  will  be  noticed  that,  in  the  last  two  plans,  which  in  principle 
are  the  same,  the  brood  rearing  of  the  colony  goes  on  as  under 
normal  conditions.  In  the  first  plan  outlined  there  is  no  brood  rear- 
ing save  that  of  the  young  queens,  and  furthermore,  all  the  unsealed 
larvae  are  removed  for  the  express  purpose  of  relieving  the  nurse 
bees  of  the  care  of  so  much  brood,  so  that  they  may  be  able  to  give 
all  their  time  and  strength  to  the  queen  cells  being  formed.  In  ad- 
dition, care  is  taken  to  provide  an  extra  force  of  nurses  by  giving  the 
colony  emerging  frames  of  brood.  These  conditions  seem  to  be 
most  favorable  for  the  production  of  well  developed  queens. 

We  pass  now  to  the  second  operation  of  queen  rearing,  that  of  pio- 
viding  for  the  care  of  the  young  queens  and  their  mating.  It  would 
obviously  be  a  great  waste  to  dequeen  and  use  full  colonies  for  this 
purpose.  So  what  are  called  nuclei  are  formed  to  receive  the  cells 
Vvhen  they  are  about  ready  to  emerge.  The  nucleus  box  of  the  most 
convenient  size  has  been  found  to  be  one  taking  about  five  frames, 
each  one-third  the  size  of  a  Langstroth  frame.  This  approximate 
size  has  been  chosen  because  of  the  ease  with  which  a  queen  can  be 
found  and  still  enough  combs  are  had  so  that  the  young  queen  can 
organize  her  brood  as  in  a  normal  colony.  The  exact  size  of  9  1-3 
inches  by  5  7-8  inches  has  been  chosen  so  that  just  three  of  the 
frames  will  fit  together  to  form  a  Langstroth  frame,  which  has 
been  found  to  be  quite  an  advantage  in  uniting  nuclei  with  colonies 
or  several  nuceli  together  in  the  fall  for  wintering  and  then,  too,  the 
frames  can  be  inserted  in  a  full  colony  in  the  spring  to  be  stocked 
with  brood  bees.  With  combs  thus  stocked  the  making  of  nuclei 
becomes  a  very  simple  matter,  as  they  have  simply  to  be  set  up  bees 
and  all.  But  in  the  case  of  nuclei  formed  by  brushing  bees  from 
the  combs  of  a  full  colony,  the  bees  usually  have  to  be  confined  for 
a  day  or  two  and  the  boxes  set  in  a  dark  place,  until  they  become 
accustomed  to  the  smaller  hives,  when  they  may  be  rowed  out  in  the 
apiary  on  benches  or  blocks  of  wood,  ready  for  the  insertion  of  ripe 
queen  cells.  In  this  way  eight  or  ten  nuclei  may  be  formed  by 
breaking  up  a  single  colony  or,  if  preferred,  the  nuclei  may  be  drawn 
singly  from  a  number  of  different  colonies  without  any  preceptible 
decrease  in  the  strength  of  the  latter.  The  number  of  nuclei  de- 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  63 

sirable  to  have  will  depend  on  the  number  of  queens  to  be  reared. 
Ordinarily  each  nucleus  will  turn  out  two  to  three  queens  each 
month  if  properly  handled. 

The  cells,  when  within  a  couple  of  days  of  the  time  of  emerg- 
ing, which  will  be  about  five  days  after  sealing,  may  be  removed  from 
the  colony  where  reared  and  distributed  one  to  each  of  the  nuclei. 
The  next  day  the  nuclei  should  be  examined  to  see  if  the  cells  are 
accepted.  If  any  are  destroyed  they  should  be  replaced.  Then  the 
cells  should  be  watched  and  the  day  of  emergence  noted. 

Usually  four  or  five  days  and  sometimes  even  a  week  will  elapse 
after  the  emergence  before  the  young  queen  takes  her  bridal  flight. 
She  may  fly  several  times  before  fertilization  is  accomplished,  but 
when  accomplished  it  will  be  denoted  by  regular  deposition  of  eggs. 
Sometimes  a  newly  .mated  queen  can  be  seen  upon  the  comb  having 
but  just  returned  from  her  flight.  A  white  spot  is  plainly  visible 
upon  the  tip  of  the  abdomen  where  the  portion  of  the  drones  re- 
productive organ  retained  in  the  act  of  copulation  is  still  seen.  In 
opening  nuclei  containing  virgin  queens,  care  should  be  taken  not 
to  alarm  them  lest  they  take  wing  and  perhaps,  if  they  have  not 
yet  flown,  may  not  get  back  into  the  right  nucleus.  For  this  reason 
it  is  well  to  have  nuclei  pretty  well  separated.  Sometimes,  on  the 
return  of  a  newly  mated  queen,  the  bees,  taking  a  dislike  to  the 
odor,  of  the  drone  about  her,  may  pitch  upon  and  ball  her,  so  dis- 
abling her  that  she  is  of  little  or  no  value.  There  occurences,  how- 
ever, are  not  very  common. 

A  young  queen  thus  regularly  laying  is  ready  for  use  about 
the  apiary  or  for  sending  out  by  mail  to  other  parties  desiring-  queens. 
Such  a  queen  when  sold  is  classed  as  an  untested  queen,  since  her 
exact  mating  is  not  known.  Upon  keeping  a  queen  three  or  four 
weeks,  until  her  progeny  have  emerged,  she  is  classed  as  a  tested 
queen  if  her  workers  prove  her  to  have  been  purely  mated ;  that  is, 
with  a  drone  of  the  same  race  or  variety.  It  is  to  be  noticed  in 
this  connection  that  the  daughter  of  a  pure  or  imported  queen,  no 
matter  what  her  mating  is,  will  produce  drones  of  the  race  of 
which  she  came,  since  they  come  from  unfertilized  eggs.  Her 
workers  and  queens,  bred  from  her,  however,  necessarily  partake  of 
the  character  of  the  drone  with  which  she  mated. 

The  disposition  of  the  young  queens  when  fertilized  and  ready 
for  use,  leads  us  into  the  discussion  of  the  mailing  of  queens  and 


64  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

the  introduction  of  queens  into  strange  colonies.  The  preparation 
of  a  suitable  cage  for  mailing  queens  long  distances  has  made  possi- 
ble not  only  the  introduction  of  many  valuable  races  of  bees,  but 
also  the  whole  industry  of  queen  rearing  and  trade  which  in  itself 
has  grown  to  greatsimportance.  The  most  generally  used  cage  now 
is  the  Benton  cage,  or  a  modified  form  of  it.  This  cage  was  per- 
fected by  the  writer's  father,  Mr.  Frank  Benton,  when  shipping 
queens  from  Munich  on  long  journeys,  even  to  Australia.  At  this 
time  also  was  perfected  the  making  of  a  suitable  bee  candy  lor 
food  upon  these  long  voyages  and  the  discovery  of  the  right  ingredi- 
ents. The  pipe  covered  introducing  cage  of  wire  cloth  which  has 
been  found  to  be  one  of  the  most  successful  devices  for  this  work, 
was  also  constructed  by  the  writer's  father.  A  fuller  description 
of  it  and  its  uses  will  be  given  later. 

The  Benton  mailing  cage  is  made  of  well  seasoned,  non-resin- 
ous, soft  pine,  in  two  or  three  sizes,  the  essential  feature  being  not 
so  much  its  size  as  its  plan  of  construction,  for  the  size  may  vary 
with  the  length  of  the  journey.  The  domestic  cage  commonly  also 
rsed  as  a  trans-Atlantic  cage,  measures  about  three  and  a  half  inhces 
in  length  by  an  inch  and  an  eight  in  width  and  three-quarters  of  an 
inch  in  depth.  In  this  are  bored  three  seven-eights  inch  auger  holes, 
the  first  or  end  one  of  which  is  waxed  to  serve  as  a  food  apartment 
by  pouring  in  melted  wax  and  quickly  pouring  it  out  again.  The 
third  or  opposite  end  apartment  is  supplied  with  six  awl  holes  on 
each  side  for  ventilation,  these  holes  being  sunk  in  a  double  groove 
en  the  outside  so  that  no  flat  surface  coming  up  against  the  cage 
in  the  mail  sack  can  shut  off  ventilation.  The  middle  apartment 
is  designed  as  a  place  into  which  the  bees  can  go  if  cold  or  to  get 
sway  from  the  light  of  the  end  apartment.  The  passage  way  be- 
tween these  two  apartments  is  made  somewhat  smaller  than  the 
entrance  to  the  food  apartment,  to.  allow  having  the  middle  apart- 
ment secluded.  The  entrance  to  the  food  apartment  must  be  large 
enough  to  insure  against  the  possibility  of  one  or  two  bees  getting 
wedged  into  it  and  so  cutting  off  the  food  supply  of  the  rest. 

The  food  used  in  these  cages  is  a  stiff  candy  dough  prepared 
from  pulverized  sugar  and  well  ripened  light  honey,  kneaded  to 
the  right  constituency.  The  waxed  cell  is  filled  with  this  candy  and 
then  sealed  with  a  piece  of  combfoundation  over  the  top,  the  cell 
previously  having  been  rimmed  out  to  receive  this  covering.  The 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  65 

cage  thus  equipped  with  a  piece  of  wire  cloth  over  the  top  and  a  thin 
board  or  paste-board  cover  is  ready  for  the  reception  of  a  queen  and 
her  attendants,  usually  to  the  number  of  a  dozen  or  fifteen  ac- 
cording to  the  time  of  the  year,  distance  to  be  sent  and  condition 
of  the  weather.  The  queen  is  usually  put  in  first  and  may  be  re- 
moved from  the  comb  by  picking  her  up  by  the  wings  with  the  right 
hand.  The  cage,  with  the  cover  slipped  back  from  the  ventilated 
end,  and  held  in  place  with  rubber  bands,  is  held  in  the  left  hand 
with  the  thumb  in  position  to  close  the  opening.  Then  workers 
are  selected  to  accompany  her  and  inserted  successively.  These 
should  be  neither  too  young  nor  too  old,  as  young  bees  have  not 
cleared  their  bodies  of  feces  and  old  bees  will  not  stand  the  journey. 
Some  of  them  may  have  honey,  one  or  two  of  them  may  be  pretty 
well  filled,  but  the  others  must  be  empty  in  order  to  care  for  the 
food  in  case  of  the  latter' s  running  and  so  prevent  daubing.  Also 
bees  laden  with  honey  do  not  travel  well  as  they  are  easily  shaken 
about  the  cage.  The  bees  all  in,  the  wire  cloth  may  be  tacked  down 
and  the  cage  leaned  up  against  something,  the  screened  side  down 
to  let  the  bees  work  out  the  particles  of  wood  from  the  freshly  cut 
cage.  Then  the  covers  may  be  nailed  on.  With  a  one  cent  stamp 
(domestic  rate)  the  queens  will  be  delivered  to  the  purchaser. 

The  latter  upon  receipt  of  the  queen  will  remove  her  and  her 
attendants  if  in  good  condition  to  an  introducing  cage,  the  change 
being  made  before  a  closed  window.  If  the  bees  are  travel  stained, 
very  young  bees  may  be  placed  in  the  introducing  cage  in  prefer- 
ence to  them.  This  pipe  covered  cage  is  made  of  a  piece  of  wire- 
cloth  rolled  to  form  a  cylinder  about  an  inch  and  a  half  in  diameter 
and  secured  at  the  seam  by  lacing.  Incisions  are  then  made  in 
one  end  and  the  edges  bent  in  to  form  the  top  leaving  the  cage  about 
an  inch  and  a  half  deep.  Then  about  three-eights  to  a  half  inch  is 
ravelled  out  at  the  open  end,  so  that  the  cage  may  be  pressed  into 
the  comb.  There  are  other  forms  of  cages  as  West  spiral  cage, 
made  of  spiral  wire,  and  Miller's  cage,  a  flattened  wire-cloth  box  with 
the  ends  closed  by  blocks.  The  great  advantage  of  the  pipe  cover- 
ed cage  is  in  its  allowing  the  queen  to  be  in  a  normal  condition  on 
the  comb,  with  access  to  honey,  all  quite  strong  advantages  es- 
pecially after  a  queen  has  been  on  a  long  journey.  Care  should 
be  taken  in  introducing  with  the  pipe  covered  cage  to  have  the  ad- 
joining comb  close  against  the  top  so  that  the  weight  of  the  bees 


66  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

will  not  pull  it  loose.  A  lazy  way  of  introducing  queens  is  to  have 
a  cork  in  the  end  of  the  food  apartment  and  removing  this  merely 
insert  the  traveling  cage  in  the  colony  and  allow  the  bees  to  eat 
their  way  through,  liberating  the  queen  about  the  time  they  are 
ready  to  accept  her. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  colony  should  be  made  queen- 
less  before  introducing  a  strange  queen,  preferably  twenty-four 
hours  before.  The  queen  usually  may  be  released  toward  night  of 
the  second  or  third  day.  All  cells  should  be  removed  at  this  time 
and  it  is  not  a  bad  plan  to  feed  the  bees  a  little  when  about  to  re- 
lease a  queen. 

These  points,  of  course,  apply  in  introducing  queens  at  any 
time.  It  may  be  desirable  to  hold  fertilized  queens  for  a  week  or 
two  and  the  pipe  covered  cage  is  adapted  to  this  use  as  well.  A 
dozen  to  twenty  queens  may  thus  be  kept  ready  for  use  in  a  top 
story  above  a  queen  excluder  preferably  or  in  a  queenless  hive. 

METHODS   OF   CONTROLL.NG    INCREASE 

We  find  firmly  fixed  in  the  bee  that  universal  desire  for  the  ex- 
tention  and  preparation  of  its  kind.  It  is  shown  in  the  persistent 
inclination  of  the  bees  to  swarm  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year  when 
the  honey  flow  is  on  and  the  over-populus  colony  is  beginning  to 
feel  its  cramped  condition  in  the  hot  spring  and  summer  months 
The  month  of  June  is  our  swarming  time  and  unless  strict  meas- 
ures are  taken  to  prevent  its  continuance,  the  month  of  July  is  added. 
In  the  Bitter  Root  Valley  where  spring  opens  up  nearly  two  weeks 
earlier  on  account  of  being  on  the  Pacific  Slope,  swarming  may 
come  earlier,  in  the  last  days  of  May. 

The  old  way  was  to  let  the  bees  swarm  and  when  found  hang- 
ing on  a  tree,  shake  them  into  a  box  or  empty  hive,  set  them  up  and 
let  them  build  their  new  home.  Wire  cloth  boxes  or  swarm  catch- 
ars  with  lids  were  devised  for  use  in  the  tops  of  trees  into  which  the 
bees  were  shaken  and  the  cover  closed  and  the  whole  let  down 
with  a  rope  when  the  bees  were  quietly  clustering.  The  main  thing 
in  these  operations  was  to  secure  the  queen  and  then  the  bees 
would  stay. 

Plenty  of  ventilation  must  be  given  the  newly  hived  swarm, 
especially  if  the  weather  is  at  all  excessively  warm.  Care  should 
be  taken  that  the  hive  before  putting  the  bees  in,  has  not  been 
standing  in  the  sun  and  so  become  heated,  and  ventilation  may  be 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  67 

given  by  proping  the  hive  up  from  the  bottom  board  or  by  putting 
a  block  under  one  corner  of  the  cover.  If  the  bees  still  persist  in 
leaving,  a  frame  of  unsealed  brood  will  always  induce  them  to  stay. 

Should  the  parent  colony  be  a  strong  one  and  the  weather  con- 
ditions favorable,  the  honey  flow  continuing,  a  week  later  when  the 
young  queens  begin  to  emerge  a  second  and  even  third  and  fourth 
swarm  may  be  cast.  In  general,  however,  afterswarming  is  to  be 
discouraged  unless  increase  is  the  'chief  aim  in  view.  This  can 
usually  be  accomplished  by  running  through  the  colony  if  access- 
ible on  the  fourth  or  fifth  day  after  the  casting  of  the  first  swarm 
and  destroying  all  of  the  queen  cells  except  one  or  two  of  the  best 
looking  ones,  watching  those  left  and  when  one  is  out  destroying 
al]  others.  To  be  sure  and  get  all  the  cells,  the  combs  should  be 
shaken  as  the  cells  not  only  occur  along  the  edges  but  are  also  sus- 
pended in  dry  holes  in  the  comb  or  are  built  out  just  below  the  bulge 
ot  the  honey  along  the  top.  The  plan  of  removing  queen  cells  ta 
prevent  any  swarming  whatever  has  not  been  found  effective. 
While  it  temporarily  may  defer  swarming,  ultimately  it  does  not. 
It  may  in  many  instances  prevent  the  actual  casting  of  a  swarm, 
yet  all  the  conditions  of  swarming  prevail.  The  bees  cease  work 
more  or  less,  the  queen  diminishes  egg  laying  and  the  brood  combs 
become  clogged  with  honey.  The  bees  may  finally  swarm  out  leav- 
ing no  cells  or  they  may  swarm  on  the  strength  of  some  stray  cell 
overlooked.  When  bees  once  get  in  the  notion  of  swarming  it  is 
hard  to  stop  them. 

Should  it  be  desired  to  have  no  swarming  in  the  apiary  the 
first  step  should  be  to  replace  all  of  the  queens  wintered  with  queens 
of  the  current  year's  raising.  Young  queens  are  not  near  so  likely 
to  be  persistent  in  swarming  as  old  ones  are.  Then,  either  half 
stories  or  full  stories  fitted  up  with  foundation  starters  may  be 
placed  between  the  brood  rest  and  the  bottom  board.  This  gives 
the  bees  a  sense  of  roominess  and  removes  the  necessity  of  swarming 
bcaus<j  of  crowded  quarters.  The  combs  as  fast  as  built  down  may 
be  removed  to  top  stories  and  empty  frames  with  only  starters  put 
in  place  of  them.  The  colonies  should  then  be  given  plenty  of 
room  above  for  storing  honey,  and  the  honey  removed  as  fast  as 
ripened. 

Should  it  be  desirable  to  have  each  colony  cast  one  swarm  for 
increase,  there  is  an  effective  way  of  handling  natural  swarms  by 
clipping  one  wing  of  the  queen.  This  should  be  done  in  the  early 


68  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT  STATION 

spring  or  in  fact  anytime  after  the  mating  of  the  queen  is  accom- 
plished. 

This  may  be  done  by  picking  the  queen  from  the  comb  by  her 
wings  with  the  thumb  and  forefinger  of  the  right  hand.  Then  set- 
ting the  comb  down  take  the  queen  carefully  by  the  thorax  between 
the  thumb  and  forefinger  or  first  two  fingers  of  the  left  hand  and 
with  a  pair  of  fine  scissors  clip  the  upper  right  wing  about  half  way 
up.  Care  must  be  exercised  that  in  the  operation  a  leg*  is  not  clipp- 
ed or  that  the  queen  is  not  squeezed  too  tightly.  Then,  laying  the 
scissors  down  the  queen  may  again  be  taken  by  the  wings  and  re- 
turned to  the  comb.  She  should  be  handled  as  little  as  possible,  as 
the  moisture  from  the  hands  tends  to  moisten  and  soil  her. 

When  the  colony  swarms  the  queen  may  be  caught  in  front  of 
the  hive  and  confined  temporarily  in  an  introducing  cage  on  a  bit 
cf  comb  and  placed  in  the  shade  somewhere  where  the  bees  will  not 
find  her.  It  is  obvious  that  the  grass  should  be  kept  short  in  front 
cf  the  hives,  that  the  hives  should  not  be  placed  high  off  the  ground 
and  that  a  slanting  board  in  front  is  very  desirable  so  that,  should 
the  bees  swarm  when  no  one  is  about,  the  queen  may  get  safely 
back  into  the  hive. 

While  the  bees  are  in  the  air  the  parent  colony  is  removed  from 
the  stand  and  an  empty  hive  with  frames  fitted  up  with  foundation 
or  with  full  combs,  put  in  its  place  on  the  old  stand.  The  bees  after 
circling  around  in  the  air,  missing  their  queen  will  return  to  the 
old  stand.  To  hasten  their  return  the  cage  containing  the  queen 
may  be  placed  on  the  alighting  board  and,  when  they  are  well  in  the 
notion  of  going  in  she  may  be  released  and  allowed  to  run  in  with 
the  rest  and  the  swarm  is  safely  housed. 

Among  the  cardinal  points  sought  usually  by  beekeepers  in  the 
handling  of  swarms  is  to  keep  the  strength  or  working  force  of  the 
colony  together  for  the  production  of  honey.  This  is  why  some, 
not  desiring  to  increase,  prefer  to  have  no  swarms  cast.  In  all 
swarming  operations  it  is  desirable  to  lose  as  little  time  as  possible, 
not  only  in  the  working  of  the  bees  in  honey  gathering,  but  also  in 
the  production  of  brood.  The  desirability  of  having  good  strong 
colonies  in  the  fall  for  wintering  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  and  also 
incidentally  the  securing  of  good  straight  worker  combs  should  be 
remembered  in  manipulatin  the  colony  at  swarming  time. 

In  view  of  these  considerations  when  swarms  are  hived  by  the 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  60 

clipping  method  it  will  be  observed  that  the  swarm  being  on  the 
old  stand  secures  all  of  the  flight  bees  in  the  fields  at  the  time 
swarming  takes  place  and,  having  a  laying  queen,  immediately  starts 
brood  rearing.  To  still  more  increase  its  strength  the  parent  col- 
ony may  be  placed  near  it  first  with  the  entrance  at  an  angle  away 
from  it  and  then  gradually  brought  close  beside  it,  with  the  en- 
trance in  the  same  direction  by  moving  it  a  little  each  day.  Then 
by  picking  up  the  colony  and  setting  it  on  the  other  side  with  the 
entrance  turned  away,  all  of  the  flight  bees  will  again  be  added  to 
the  swarm.  This  shifting  may  be  repeated  several  times  until  the 
swarm  is  sufficiently  strong.  If  increase  is  not  desired  this  may  be 
carried  on  until  the  entire  parent  colony  is  merged  in  with  the 
swarm  and  the  .comb  used  for  other  colonies  or  as  surplus  combs, 
provided  the  queen  cells  are  first  removed.  Should  this  not  be  de- 
sirable a  young  queen  may  be  permitted  to  hatch  out  and  the  colony 
set  up  on  a  new  stand  as  soon  as  the  swarm  has  been  sufficiently 
strengthened.  Or  better  still,  the  cells  may  be  removed  and  a, 
young  laying  queen  introduced  as  this  will  save  nearly  two  week's 
time  in  the  production  of  brood,  quite  an  item  at  this  time  of  the 
year. 

There  are  several  methods  of  artificial  increase  followed  to 
evade  the  process  of  natural  swarming.  One  way  is  to  divide  the 
colony  equally,  supplying  a  laying  queen  from  a  nucleus  to  the 
queenless  portion,  and  in  each  case  filling  out  the  quota  of  combs. 
This  divides  the  strength  of  the  colony  so  that  a  better  way  is  to 
simply  draw  off  a  nucleus -by  setting  over  into  the  empty  hive  a 
couple  of  combs  with  the  queen  and  then  supplying  the  old  colony 
with  a  young  laying  queen.  The  parent  colony  is  then  left  in  a 
condition  to  store  honey.  The  nucleus  drawn  off  may  then  be 
given  combs  or  full  sheets  of  foundation  and  so  gradually  built  up 
to  the  strength  of  a  full  colony.  We  say  give  them  full  sheets  be- 
cause the  nucleus  has  presumably  an  old  queen,  that  is  not  one  of 
the  current  year's  raising,  and  the  tendency  of  the  bees  is  to  build 
drone  comb  unless  they  are  very  much  crowded  for  space,  which 
of  course  would  not  be  the  case  with  the  nucleus. 

Another  plan  is  to  form  what  is  known  as  shaken  swarms. 
These  are  formed  by  shaking  the  adult  bees  from  the  combs  of  a 
colony  into  a  hive  of  foundation  starters  or  full  sheets  of  wired 
foundation.  Prior  to  shaking,  the  bees  should  be  well  smoked  and 


70  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

allowed  to  fill  themselves  with  honey  so  that  the  normal  condition  of 
bees  when  swarming  will  be  established,  for  just  before  swarming 
bees  instinctively  gorge  themselves  with  honey,  this  accounting  in 
a  large  measure  for  their  docility  at  the  swarming  time.  The 
swarm  so  shaken  may  be  placed  on  the  old  stand  to  retain  the 
flight  bees  and  the  parent  colony  set  up  on  a  new  stand.  The  plan 
of  continuing  to  add  flight  bees  to  the  swarm  may  be  followed  in 
this  instance  as  described  in  connection  with  having  natural  swarms 
on  the  old  stands.  If  the  shaken  swarm  is  placed  on  starters  a 
young  queen  should  be  given  it  to  insure  the  building  of  worker 
combs,  the  old  queen  being  retained  in  the  parent  colony.  If  young 
queens  enough  are  available  it  is  well  to  replace  the  old  queen  at  this 
time,  for  if  left  in  the  parent  colony,  the  instinct  to  swarm  may  lead 
the  colony  as  soon  as  strengthened  up  enough  to  warrant  it,  to  cast 
a  swarm  in  spite  of  having  been  greatly  depleted  in  numbers  by  the 
previously  shaken  swarm. 

There  has  been  some  objection  raised  to  thus  shaking  bees 
from  the  brood  combs  of  a  colony,  it  being  claimed  that  the  brood 
is  chilled  and  that  the  unsealed  brood  is  but  poorly  cared  for  in  the 
depleted  condition  of  the  colony.  The  plan  should  not  be  carried 
out  until  just  before  the  honey  flow  when  the  nights  are  warm  and 
the  brood  not  likely  to  suffer  much  danger  of  being  chilled.  The 
youngest  brood  may  be  given  to  other  colonies.  Or  still  better  the 
days  immediately  preceding  the  shaking  of  the  swarm  may  be  used 
to  introduce  a  young  queen  (first  removing  the  old  one),  and  so  the 
youngest  brood  will  have  time  to  get  past  the  stage  of  needing  so 
much  attention  and  care.  Some  beekeepers  prefer  to  put  a  top 
story  on  the  colony  to  be  divided  a  short  time  before  it  is  proposed 
to  make  the  division.  Then  the  young  brood  is  all  transferred  to 
this  story  and  set  down  on  the  bottom  board  at  the  time  of  the 
division,  the  bees  from  the  lower  stofy  then  being  shaken  into  it 
and  the  latter  story  set  up  on  a  new  stand,  as  the  parent  colony  and 
given  a  laying  queen  from  a  nucleus. 

But  it  will  probably  be  found  that  for  the  small  apiarist  the 
clipping  method  of  controlling  swarming  will  be  the  most  natural 
and  satisfactory. 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  71 

PRODUCTION  OF  HONEY 

Last,  but  none  the  less  important  are  the  operations  of  the 
apiarist  attendant  upon  the  production  of  honey.  Indeed  nearly 
all  of  the  foregoing  operations  are  brought  to  a  focus  upon  this, 
the  principal  aim  of  keeping  bees'  for  profit.  The  successful  pro- 
ducer of  honey,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  must  begin  in  the  fall  or 
late  summer  of  the  preceding  year  rather  than  just  before  the 
honey  flow,  as  is  too  often  done.  The  importance  of  this  point  will 
be  readily  seen  when  it  is  realized  that  to  have  a  colony  well  sup- 
plied with  bees  at  the  time  of  the  honey  flow,  that  is,  bees  old 
enough  for  work  in  the  fields,  the  colony  must  be  stocked  with  eggs 
about  five  weeks  or  longer  previous  to  the  flow.  But  colonies  will 
not  be  in  this  prime  condition  so  early  in  the  spring  unless  wintered 
well  with  a  good  supply  of  strong  bees  bred  in  late  summer  the 
previous  year.  To  accelerate  the  production  of  brood,  stimulation 
by  spring  feeding,  as  previously  outlined,  is  an  excellent  course  to 
pursue.  Then  manipulation  to  enlarge  the  brood  nest  may  follow 
and,  if  pollen  is  not  plentiful  in  a  colony,  frames  of  pollen  added. 
Should  there  be  a  dearth  of  pollen,  which  is  not  likely  to  be  the 
case,  artificial  pollen  food  may  be  supplied  in  the  shape  of  graham 
flour.  This  may  be  dampened  and  placed  in  pans  near  the  bees 
where  they  will  find  it.  In  these  ways  early  brood  rearing  will  be 
established  and  the  serength  of  the  colony  rapidly  increased  in  the 
weeks  preceding  the  honey  flow.  Then  of  the  swarming  problem 
is  handled  properly,  so  that  the  strength  of  the  colony  be  kept  to- 
gether, a  good  yield  of  honey  will  be  assured.  The  manipulation 
here  will  depend  somewhat  upon  whether  one  is  running  for  comb 
or  for  extracted  honey.  Shakeij  swarms  on  starters  below,  or  first 
swarms  hived  on  the  old  stand  with  the  flight  bees  added,  also  on 
starters,  make  good  colonies  for  producing  nice  white  clear  comb 
honey.  For  the  production  of  comb  honey  the  colony  must  be  very 
strong.  If  only  a  limited  increase  is  desired  this  may  be  secured  by 
shaking  together  the  bees  from  two  adjoining  colonies,  first  remov- 
ing the  queens  and  returning  the  latter  to  the  parent  colonies  re- 
specitvely  after  the  operation.  The  new  colony  so  made  should  be 
on  starters  and  may  then  be  given  a  young  queen  newly  fertilized 
from  a  nucleus.  The  bees  being  excessively  strong  in  numbers 
and  bearing  on  starters  below  will  immediately  go  to  work  in  the 
super  placed  above,  with  section  containing  full  sheets  of  founda- 


72  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

tion  or  previously  drawn  out  comb  obtained  perhaps  from  the  sea- 
son before.  Having  a  young  queen  of  the  current  year's  raising, 
the  building  of  worker  comb  in  below  when  only  starters  have  been 
used,  is  assured.  If  an  old  queen  be  retained  full  sheets  in  wired 
frames  should  be  used.  If  the  nights  are  at  all  chilly  it  is  well  to 
have  a  quilt  above  the  supers  held  tightly  down,  with  papers  be- 
tween it  and  the  cover,  for  the  double  purpose  of  retaining  the  heat 
of  the  bees  for  building  operations  and  to  prevent  the  bees  from 
soiling  the  tops  of  the  sections  by  daubing  propolis  over  them.  Nice 
clean  sections  add  much  to  the  salable  quality  of  comb  honey. 

In  supering  the  old  colonies  it  is  well  to  do  so  before  there  is 
much  honey  stored  in  below.  As  soon  as  the  bees  begin  to  whiten 
the  combs  of  the  brood  chamber  the  supers  may  be  put  on.  If  one 
has  a  honey  extractor  available  the  brood  frames  may  be  carefully 
extracted,  care  being  taken  to  turn  them  slowly  in  the  extractor 
and  longer  than  when  no  brood  is  in  the  combs.  The  queen  will 
then  get  the  frames  below  filled  with  brood  if  they  are  extracted  at 
the  right  time  when  the  outer  cells  are  emerging  and  eggs  are  be- 
ing deposited  in  the  inner  cells.  The  bees  will  then  be  forced  into 
the  super  to  store  their  honey.  If  the  brood  chamber  gets  clogged 
with  honey  it  not  only  discourages  the  bees  from  crawling  over  the 
sealed  honey  to  store  above  but  crowds  the  queen  and  is  likely  to 
cause  the  colony  to  cease  work  and  encourages  swarming.  When 
the  bees  begin  to  seal  the  honey  in  the  super  a  second  super  may  ^e 
put  in  place  on  the  hive,  elevating  the  first  and  putting  the  second 
below  it.  When  the  first  is  ready  to  be  removed,  the  bee  escape 
board  previously  described  should  be  inserted  taking  care  not  to 
smoke  or  excite  the  bees  lest  they  bite  into  the  capped  honey. 

Comb  honey  should  never  be  stored  in  a  cold  or  damp  place 
Honey  is  deliquescent  and  if  subjected  to  a  damp  atmosphere  will 
gather  moisture  and  bursting  the  cappings  the  honey  will  begin  to 
run  and  then  sour  and  ferment.  Under  the  proper  conditions  comb 
honey,  however,  may  be  kept  indefinitely. 

Probably  more  honey  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  colonies 
may  be  obtained  when  the  apiary  is  run  for  extracted  honey.  This 
is  due  to  two  reasons,  namely,  first,  there  are  many  colonies  which 
would  not  store  honey  in  a  super  because  of  their  insufficient 
strength,  and,  second,  the  combs  for  extracting  are  already  built 
or  at  any  rate  are  built  but  once  in  the  season  after  which  they  are 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  7* 

used  over  and  over  again,  the  bees  thus  being  permitted  to  spend 
all  of  their  time  and  energy  storing  honey  which  is  quite  an  item 
especially  if  the  honey  flow  is  a  short  one  as  is  the  case  in  Montana. 
The  building  up  of  colonies  as  outlined  above  applies  equally  for  ex- 
tracted honey,  yet  usually  honey  colonies  or  those  colonies  espec- 
ially prepared  for  the  harvest,  are  not  permitted  to  swarm  and  are 
not  driven  or  shaken.  Provided  with  young  and  prolific  queens 
these  colonies  are  bred  up  to  overflowing  with  brood  and  bees.  To 
prevent  swarming  half  depth  stories  or  even  full  stories  usually  only 
with  starters,  but  sometimes  with  full  sheets  of  foundation  on  wire, 
if  the  combs  are  needed,  are  kept  below  the  brood  chambers.  As 
fast  as  the  frames  of  these  stories  are  filled  with  comb  they  are  re- 
moved and  empty  ones  put  in  their  places,  fitted  with  foundation  of 
course.  Above  the  brood  chambers  is  placed  a  zinc  honey  board  or 
queen  excluder.  This  is  simply  a  sheet  of  sine  perforated  with  ob- 
long holes  large  enough  to  permit  of  the  free  passage  of  the  w  (rker 
bees  but  not  of  the  queen  or  the  drones.  These  zinc  sheets  are 
usually  bound  with  wood  giving  a  bee  space  on  one  side  and 
should  be  placed  with  this  space  up  as  there  is  normally  a  bee  space 
above  the  combs.  There  are  also  slatted  wood  queen  excluders 
which  are  made  of  alternate  strips  of  wood  and  perforated  zinc,  thus 
doing  away  with  the,  tendency  of  the  full  sheets  of  zinc  to  sag  in  the 
middle.  This  sagging  in  the  case  of  the  full  sheets  may  be  remedied 
by  placing  strips  across  the  top  bars  of  the  lower  story.  The  lower 
stories  having  been  extracted  and  gotten  filled  with  brood  the  top 
stories  may  then  be  put  on  and  when  partially  filled  a  third  story 
may  be  inserted  between  the  lower  and  top  stories.  In  the  case  of 
very  strong  colonies  it  may  be  advantageous  and  profitable  to  put 
on  a  fourth  story.  It  is  better  to  do  so  than  to  take  the  honey  off 
before  it  is  well  ripened.  Unripened  honey  may  not  only  lose  >ts 
aromja  and  flavor  but  may  even  sour. 

Extracted  honey  should  always  be  allowed  to  stand  in  an  open 
vessel  for  a  day  or  two  thus  allowing  the  scum  to  rise  which  should 
be  removed.  It  may  then  be  drawn  off  into  sixty  pound  tins  or 
even  barrels  for  shipping  or  storing  purposes.  Or  if  to  be  :mme- 
diately  marketed  smaller  cans  or  jars  or  bottles  may  bs  filled  and 
labelled.  Honey  should  be  graded.  To  facilitate  this  it  is  well  to 
sort  the  honey  when  extracting  it  or  to  watch  the  flow  from  a  given 


74  MONTANA  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

source  and  then  extracting  that  honey  before  the  bees  begin  a  nc'v 
source. 

The  granulation   of  honey  after  being  gathered   especially   in 
cold  weather  is  looked  upon  as  a  sign  of  its  purity.     It  may  be  again 
easily  rendered  liquid  by  heating,  the  containing  vessel  in  a  can  or 
boiler  of  hot  water.     Very  high  temperatures  should  never  be  ap- 
plied to  honey  as  it  has  a  tendency  to  destroy  the  flavor  ami  aroma. 
The  foregoing  at  best  is  but  a  brief  outline  of  the  subject  of  bee- 
keeping and  for  one  interested  in  the  keeping  of  bees  there  is  n  jth- 
ing  better  than  to  become  a  close  reader  of  one  or  more  of  our  bee 
journals.     In    this    way   many   different   methods   of   operating   an 
apiary  may  be  learned  and  the  whole  subject  slowly  mastered.     A 
list  of  the  bee  journals  published  in  this  country  is  here  given. 
Gleanings  in  Bee  Culture,  Medina,  O.     (Bi-monthly.) 
The  American  Bee  Journal,  Chicago,  111.     (Weekly.) 
The  Beekeepers'  Review,  Flint,  Mich.     (Monthly.) 
The -American  Bee  Keeper,  Jamestown,  N.  Y.     (Monthly). 
The  Progressive  Bee  Keeper,  Higginsville,  Mo.   (Monthly) 
The-  Rural  Bee  Keeper,  River  Falls,  Wis.       Monthly.) 


BEE  DISEASES 

It  seems  almost  superfluous  to  speak  of  this  subject  as  Mon- 
tana bee  keepers  are  so  little  troubled  if  at  all,  by  the  maladies  which 
attack  bees.  The  most  common  disease  is  that  of  dysentery  and  the 
best  remedy  a  good  cleansing  flight.  It  only  attacks  bees  in  the 
winter  and  is  caused  by  excessive  dampness  or  soured  honey  due 
again  to  dampness. 

There  is  a  paralysis  prevalent  among  bees  which  is  found  to 
attack  only  the  adult  bees  and  hence  easily  suppressed.  It  is  a 
bacterial  disease  and  the  victims  driven  forth  by  the  other  bees  may 
be  seen  black  and  shiny  in  appearance  struggling  with  their  un- 
certain movements  away  from  the  inflicted  colony.  Removing  first 
Jill  of  the  brood  and  honey  of  the  colony,  powdered  sulphur  may  be 
strewn  about  the  hive.  Another  way  is  to  carry  the  infected  colony 
or  colonies  away. some  distance,  a  half  mile  to  a  mile,  and  then  to 
remove  the  brood  as  fast  as  it  is  bred  and  to  save  the  progeny  of  the 
colony.  The  old  bees  will  soon  die  off  and  the  colony  thus  deplet- 


PRACTICAL  BEEKEEPING  75 

ed  will  soon  dwindle  to  nothing  and  so  exterminate  the  pest. 

Another  bacterial  disease  of  a  more  serious  nature  commonly 
called  four  brood  is  the  bacillus  of  the  hive.  Its  common  name 
aiises  from  the  symptoms  which  are  readily  noticeable  in  the  brood. 
The  latter  becomes  dark  and  in  the  case  of  sealed  brood  if  the 
sunken  caps  are  removed  the  larvae  or  pupae  in  a  dead  condition  are 
putrid,  have  a  strong  odor  and  are  of  a  stringy  or  ropy  consistency. 
The  simplest  remedy  for  the  disease  which  is  very  contagious,  is 
to  shake  the  bees  from  the  diseased  colony  into  a  box  just  at  night- 
fall, when  they  are  all  in.  The  combs  and  honey  may  'hen  be  des- 
troyed by  burning  and  the  hive  disinfected  by  washing  with  cor- 
rosive sublimate  made  by  adding  one  eighth  of  an  ounce  to  each 
gallon  of  water.  This  same  disinfectant  may  be  used  on  tools  and 
also  on  the  hands  after  handling  the  diseased  colony.  The  bees  con- 
fined for  two  day  in  a  dark  place  may  be  now  fed  a  half  pint  to  a 
pint  of  medicated  syrup  each  day  for  two  or  three  days.  This  syrup 
is  prepared  by  adding  one  part  of  carbolic  acid  to  six  hundred  parts 
of  sugar  syrup.  Honey  may  be  used  if  available.  At  the  end  of 
the  fourth  or  fifth  day  the  bees  may  be  taken  out  and  shaken  into  a 
hive  provided  with  starters  set  up  a  little  apart  from  the  other  bees. 

Should  there  be  considerable  brood  from  several  colonies  it  may 
be^  placed  over  one  affected  colony  until  the  young  bees  have  emerg- 
ed and  then  the  combs  may  be  melted  up  for  wax  by  boiling  for 
several  hours  in  hot  water.  The  bits  of  comb  built  by  the  bees  dur- 
ing confinement  should  be  treated  similarly.  The  wax  on  cooling 
should  have  the  settlings  containing  any  possible  spores  burned. 
Bees  thus  treated  almost  always  can  be  cured.  As  far  as  we  know 
there  have  been  no  cases  of  this  malady  in  the  state,  and,  in  fact,  it 
is  not  a  very  common  disease,  the  writer  never  having  met  with  an 
actual  case  in  his  experience. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA   LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 


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JUN  87  1913 

DEC  10  1919 

1920 


UEAU62I 

A UG  30  1984  R EM 


SOm-?,1!' 


